Prepuce

“ Propagation.--All the species may be multiplied by seed, by layers, by cuttings, by suckers, or from grafts, almost indiscriminately. Layering is the easiest, and most certain mode of propagating this most beautiful shrub.
The roots that branch, out and throw up distinct shoots may be divided, or cut off from the main root, and even an eye thus taken off may be made to produce a good plant.
Suckers, when they have pushed through the soil, may be taken up by digging down, and gently detaching them from the roots. ”

“ The mold or mildew which gathers on the surface of preserves is a plant of exquisite beauty when viewed with low magnifying power and by reflected light, for what appears to the naked eye only a soft, white, woolly crust, becomes a glittering forest of graceful stems and branches, standing like fine spun silver upon the dark background of the supporting surface. ”

“ As are the fruit, flowers, foliage of this parent stock which has furnished the buds or slips for transplanting, so will be the fruit, flowers, foliage of the resulting plant or tree. Nothing will be added to the qualities we wish to perpetuate, but on the other hand nothing will be subtracted. To the double flowers of the original from which came the [166] layer, the slip, or the graft, will correspond the double flowers of the plant developing from this layer, slip, or graft: the same shade of coloring will be reproduced, and the fruit will have the same size, savor, and sweetness. ”

“ But if you had had your wits about you some forty years ago, you certainly had not missed procuring the spring-root. I can myself inform you by what means the plant may be obtained. The easiest way is to call in the service of a black woodpecker. Watch one in the spring season, when it makes its nest in a hollow tree, and then, when it flies out to seek food for its young ones, drive a wedge of wood into the hole, whence it has taken its flight. “When it returns, and perceives that the access to its nest is cut off, it will fly round the tree and scream ”

“ But when flowering is over, and the little round fruit is ripening, the stalk twists so that the fruit is turned towards the wall and finally pushed into any convenient crevice: when the capsule opens, the seeds, instead of dropping to the base of the wall where on germination the young plants would be smothered among stronger growths, find themselves lodged in niches in which the young plants may develop successfully. ”

“ Shall we plant thick, as in a nursery, and then transplant, or shall we plant where they are to grow? In fruit-trees, the object is to get a low, full, and spreading top, of horizontal branches, that will bear much fruit. This is eminently promoted by transplanting, root-pruning, and heading-in. But in raising timber, the object is to get trees of long, straight bodies, with the fewest possible low branches. ”

“ In our familiar wild flowers, for instance, the young plant, at an early stage of its existence, while it is still minute, becomes covered with a coat often of very resistant qualities, and is then cast loose by the parent in the form of seed, mostly in great numbers, to achieve what travels it can before it takes root and settles down, like its parent before it, to a humdrum existence. ”

“ This was a new sort of work, and even more fascinating than seed-planting. The tiny plants were fragile and had to be handled very carefully. Then a hole must be dug with a trowel, the plant set in, and the soil gently filled in about it. ”

“ Upon a suitable soil, the Spruce Fir has always appeared to me, to be decidedly and incomparably the best nurse of the Oak. I have, for instance, often seen, on a clay soil, a Spruce Fir, and an Oak of twenty-five years growth, flourishing admirably, in close proximity with each other—even within a foot and a half. ”

“ Plants are generally propagated from the young shoots which form each year about the base of an older plant, but may also be produced from cuttings made from young well-ripened wood, rooted by setting in a nursery or in frames, as in the propagation of grape-vines from cuttings. ”

“ In garden flowers, also, we see most striking results of continuous selection. By taking advantage of the tendency of stamens and carpels to change occasionally into petals, and of petals to increase in number, “double flowers” have been effected. When “doubling” is complete—that is, when the conversion into petals is thorough—no seed can of course be produced, and the plants must be propagated by cuttings. Different other slight natural variations, exaggerated by selection and cultivation, have been the source of innumerable “varieties” in our gardens. ”

“ Propagation and Cultivation.—It is propagated from seeds, which should be sown in spring, as soon as the ground has become well settled. They may be sown where the plants are to remain; or in a nursery-bed, to be afterwards transplanted. The plants should be grown in rows eighteen inches or two feet apart, and about a foot apart in the rows. The after-culture consists simply in keeping the ground loose, and free from weeds. The plant is said to yield a much greater amount of herbage if the top is broken or cut off when it is about half grown. ”

“ One day a tiny seed, blown by the wind or carried by a bird, finds lodgment high in one of its forks. Germinating in a bed of vegetable mould, the seed produces a sprout. After a time the nourishment of the mould becomes insufficient for its needs, and then it begins to run down the tree. As it descends it throws out lateral tendrils; these in turn develop transverse tendrils, and soon all of them diverge to encircle the tree. ”

“ Here, in the depths of the glen, a clear pool of water caught the sun's rays streaming through a canopy of boughs and branches, and showed gold and silver fish basking in the warmth, or feeding on the ripe green weeds which flourished on the pebbly bed. ”

“ You are all probably familiar with the fact, as a matter of experience, that you can propagate plants by means of what are called "cuttings;" for example, that by taking a cutting from a geranium plant, and rearing it properly, by supplying it with light and warmth and nourishment from the earth, it grows up and takes the form of its parent, having all the properties and peculiarities of the original plant. ”

“ Preserving, for winter or spring use, is best done by plowing a furrow on land where water will not stand, and placing the heads in the furrow with the roots up. Cover with earth from three to six inches deep, letting the roots protrude. The large leaves will convey all the water off from the heads, and they will come out as fresh and good as in the fall. ”

“ Maturing in late summer and autumn, the seeds are dropped to the ground beneath the parent plant, or by some strong gust of wind are borne to a distance, where some find lodgment in a sheltered spot—a crevice of the rock or the cover of some friendly shrub. ”

“ We have now glanced at the most distinctive of the plant formations which we meet with in our own country, and find that they accompany extreme conditions relating to water and soil: it remains to return to the consideration of the vegetation which develops under conditions of a more normal character—on ordinary soils, in fact, which are neither very wet nor very dry. ”

“ These are, as already pointed out, young plants, already a long way advanced from the egg stage, neatly tucked up and enclosed, in most cases along with a supply of food material, in a tight, strong skin, which is mostly of a particularly impervious character, protecting the young plant from injury by bruising, from attacks of small animal enemies, from extremes of heat and cold, of moisture and dryness. ”

“ I have no doubt that the following table, which I have carefully prepared from my own extensive experience in regard to length of time required by different plants to take root from cuttings, will be of interest to all who desire to propagate plants in this manner. I am supposing now, in the following table, that all the conditions and facilities are such as are generally found in a first-class propagating house, with bottom heat, etc.:
All hardy shrubs, taken when the wood is green and young, may be propagated in like manner. ”

“ And when growth ceases above ground, and the leaves die and fall, or no longer act, then the roots generally stop growing, [Pg 35] and their soft and tender tips harden. From this period, therefore, until growth begins anew the next spring, is the best time for transplanting; especially for trees and shrubs.
73. The absorbing surface of young roots is much increased by the formation, near their tips, of Root-hairs (Fig. 81, 82) , which are delicate tubular outgrowths from the surface, through the delicate walls of which moisture is promptly imbibed. ”

“ This residue, where not also washed away, collects in every little hollow, and lowly plants such as Algæ and Mosses soon discover it and colonize it. Their decayed remains add nutritive material to the little pocket, and help to retain water, and thus prepare the way by degrees for higher forms of life; till at length the crevices become filled with a luxuriant vegetation which, as we shall see later, is of a rather peculiar type. It should be noted that even the bare rock is not so inhospitable as completely to exclude plant life. ”

“ Breaking the shell, we come to the seed. Of what use are the two parts we have just removed? We must be very stupid if we cannot recognize in them the coverings intended to protect the seed, the wrappings that shelter the delicate germ from cold, heat, rain, and the teeth of animals. The outer envelope, covered with a short, velvety down, serves as a protection against the weather; the inner one is a veritable strong-box which we have to break between two stones before we can get at its contents. ”

“ Propagation and Cultivation.—It may be propagated by seeds, or by a division of the roots. It thrives best in a shady situation, and requires frequent watering. If salt be occasionally dissolved in the water, it will promote the growth of the plants, and render the branches and foliage more succulent and tender. ”

“ For Transplanting Trees, the autumn is the best time. Take as much of the root as possible, especially the little fibres, which should never become dry. If kept long before they are set out, put wet moss around them and water them. Dig holes larger than the extent of the roots; let one person hold the tree in its former position, and another place the roots carefully as they were before, cutting off any broken or wounded root. ”

“ A long branch bends down to the ground, takes root there, and then becomes detached from the parent stock by the death or destruction of the connecting part. The horticulturist lays a long shoot in the ground, waits until it sends down adventitious roots, and finally severs the connection with his pruning-shears. ”

“ The Privet may be easily propagated by seed, layers, or by cuttings: being a hardy plant of quick growth, it is usefully employed in making hedges. It attains the height of from ten to fifteen feet; is adorned with oblong leaves, and bears black berries containing a violet pulp, which ripens in October. ”

“ If it is desirable to keep the old plants another year they may be removed to the house or cellar, and kept cool and dry until toward spring, when they can be repotted in fresh soil, watered scantily, and started into growth and pruned or trained to any desired shape or form.—The Floral World. ”

“ Agricultural chemists were chiefly engaged till nearly 1860 with the questions, whether all or certain constituents of the ash of a plant are indispensable parts of its food, and whence these constituents are derived, and with cognate considerations on the exhaustion of the soil by cultivation and its remedy by suitable manuring. ”

“ The buds and bulbs of plants constitute what is termed by Linneus the Hybernaculum, or winter cradle of the embryon vegetable. The buds arise from the bark on the branches of trees, and the bulbs from the caudex of bulbous-rooted plants, or the part from which the fibres of the root are produced, they are defended from too much moisture, and from frosts, and from the depredations of insects by various contrivances, as by scales, hairs, resinous varnishes, and by acrid rinds. ”

“ The pioneers of a succession are those species nearest at hand that are the most mobile. (2) The number of migrants from any formation into a habitat varies inversely as the square of the distance. (3) The pioneer species are regularly derived from different formations, as the latter nearly always contain permobile species capable of effective ecesis. (4) The plants of the initial stages are normally algae and fungi, with minute spores, composites, and grasses, which possess permobile fruits, or ruderal plants, on account of their great seed production. ”

“ After these different soils have been brought under cultivation, the characteristic species, which we have just enumerated, disappear, and are replaced by other plants, which grow, to all appearance, spontaneously, under the name of weeds; but, in reality, spring from germs or seeds too frequently mixed up with the different manures, or spread abroad by the agency of birds or the wind. ”

“ By growing a Pereskia on into a large plant, and then cutting it into any shape desired, we may, by grafting upon its spurs or branches a number of pieces of Epiphyllum, obtain large flowering specimens of various shapes in a comparatively short time. ”

“ In transplanting to permanent position from the nursery, there are two methods of treatment each having its advocates. One is to cut off all branches in order that the strength of the tree may go entirely to root making, and the other to leave the five six or seven branches forming the head. ”