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fhould be well watered. After very heavy rains, which are liable to run the furface to a batter and wash away part of the foil, it is well to rake the beds fightly, and fift over them a little fresh mould this prevents the surface from baking, and at once gives a fupply of air and nourishment to the embryo plants.

BEDS OF COMPOST are made by mixing drift-fand, or other materials, with the natural foil of the feminary, or with virgin mould taken from a rich meadow or old pasture-ground. But the particular ingredients of a compoft depend upon the nature of the plant to be raised; and the reader is referred to the respective Species in the ALPHABET OF PLANTS for further information on this head.

The mode of raifing plants in POTS and BOXES alfo depends greatly upon the particular plant to be raised. The chief intent of this method is to guard the embryo and feedling plants from the extremes of heat and cold. The pots are filled with compoft fuited to the plant. For examples, fee the articles ANNONA, ARALIA, AZALIA, MELIA, PISTACIA, &c. &c.

PROPAGATING FROM CUTTINGS.-It is not from feeds alone that plants may be increased; fo great a fimplicity prevails in the fyftem of vegetation, that numerous tribes may be propageted from twigs or truncheons cut out of the woody

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parts of the plants themfelves, and ftuck naked into the ground without either root or branch upon them the part in contact with the foil fends forth roots, which, expofed to the open air, fend forth branches!

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But altho' moft of the aquatics, and many other genera of trees and fhrubs, may be raised from CUTTINGS planted in common earth and in the open air, there are others which require more care and greater helps. Some require a warm, others a cool border: fome must be rooted in pots, others in ftoves, or in the green-house. Again, fome fhould be taken from the older branches, others from younger fhoots: fome require to be planted in autumn, others in the fpring. Thefe and other peculiarities of treatment will be specified, when we come to treat feparately of each individual.

PROPAGATING FROM SUCKERS.-There is a great fimilarity between the branches and the roots of plants. If the fibres of fome fpecies. become exposed to the air, they quit their function of fupplying the parent plant with nourishment, and, taking upon them the nature of feedlings, put forth leaves and branches. Thefe rootling plants are called SUCKERS; and if they be flipt off from the parent root, and planted in a foil and fituation fuited to their respective natures, they will grow up in the manner of feedling plants.

Various

Various opinions are held refpecting the propriety of raifing trees and fhrubs from fuckers: EVELYN and MILLER are against the practice; faying, that plants raised from fuckers are more apt to fend up fuckers (which are troublesome intruders, efpecially in ornamental grounds) than those of the fame fpecies which have been raised from feeds. HANBURY, however, is of a contrary opinion: he fays, "What might incline people to this notion was, that they have obferved trees raised from feeds very long before they produced fuckers: but they fhould confider, that no tree or plant will produce fuckers till it is of a fuitable fize or ftrength for the purpofe, any more than animals can produce young before they are of proper age; and let them plant a feedling that is grown ftrong, a layer of the fame ftrength, and one which has been raised from a fucker, exactly of the fame fize, and with the fame number of fibres to the root, and they will find that the feedling or the layer will not be behindhand with the other in producing fuckers, if they have all a like foil and fituation; for it is peculiar to them to fport under the foil in this manner; and Nature will ever act agreeably to herself, if not stopped in her progrefs by art." Nevertheless, in fpeaking of particular plants, we find him holding forth a different language.

PROPA

PROPAGATING BY LAYERING.-As the roots of fome plants when exposed to the air fend forth fhoots and branches, fo the branches of others, when placed in contact with the earth, fend out fibres and roots, which being fevered from the parent plant, a feparate tree is produced.

LAYERING being an operation by which a great majority of trees and fhrubs may be propagated, and by which the many beautiful variegations are principally preferved, we fhall here give fome general directions for performing it; referving, however, the minutiæ peculiar to each species until we come to treat of the individual fpecies feparately.

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LAYERS are bent either from the fools of trees and fhrubs headed down to a few inches above the furface of the ground, or from boughs, plafhed fo as to bend their tops to the ground; or from trees brought into a stooping pofture, by excavating the foil on one fide of them, until their heads are lowered into a fimilar fituation.

STOOLS afford the fimpleft, and are the most common, supply of layers. Where a great number of layers are wanted, plants fhould be raised for the purpose, and planted in fome well-fenced ground, or in fome vacant part of the feminary or nursery; and, when of a proper age and fize, headed down to the height of about eight inches for stools. In many cafes, trees ftanding in grounds or woods may

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be cut down, and give a fufficient fupply. In whatever fituation they are, the earth round them must be double-dug as deep as the foil will allow, and be treated in a manner fimilar to that of a feed-bed.

The METHOD OF LAYERING is this: Dig a ringtrench round the ftool, of a depth suitable to the nature of the plant; and having pitched upon the fhoots to be layered, bend them to the bottom of the trench either with or without plafhing, as may be found moft convenient), and there peg them faft; or, putting fome mould upon them, tread them hard enough to prevent their fpringing up again-fill in the mould;-place the top of the layer in an upright pofture, treading the mould hard behind it; and cut it carefully off above the first, fecond, or third eye.

In this fimple way a numerous tribe of plants may be layered there are many, however, which require a more complex treatment. Some will fucceed by having a chip taken off the under fide of the lower bend of the layer, which gives the fibres an opportunity of breaking out with greater free, dom others by having a cleft made in that part by thrusting an awl or bodkin through it, keeping the cleft open by a chip or wooden peg; or by making a longitudinal flit in the bark only others fucceed. better by twisting the part: and others again by pricking it, and binding a wire round it. But when SIMPLE LAYERING will not fucceed, the most prevailing,

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