CHAP. 13.—PROPAGATION BY SLIPS AND CUTTINGS.

Nature has also discovered another method, which is very similar to the last—for slips torn away from the tree will live. In adopting this plan, care should be taken to pull out the haunch[1] of the slip where it adheres to the stock, and so remove with it a portion of the fibrous body of the parent tree. It is in this way that the pomegranate, the hazel, the apple, the sorb, the medlar, the ash, the fig, and more particularly the vine, are propagated. The quince, however, if planted in this way will degenerate,[2] and it has been consequently found a better plan to cut slips and plant them: a method which was at first adopted for making hedges, with the elder, the quince, and the bramble, but came afterwards to be applied to cultivated trees, such as the poplar, the alder, and the willow, which last will grow if even the slip is planted upside down.[3] In the case of cuttings, they are planted at once in the spot which it is intended they should occupy: but before we pass on to the other methods of propagation, it seems as well to mention the care that should be expended upon making seedplots.[4]

1. "Perna." This method of reproduction is still adopted, but it is not to be recommended, as the young tree, before it throws out a root, is liable to be overthrown by high winds. Virgil mentions it, Georg. ii. 23.

2. Palladius only says that the growth of the quince in such case is very slow.

3. This experiment has been tried for curiosity's sake, and has succeeded; the roots become dry, lose their fibres, and then develop buds, from which branches issue; while the buds of the summit become changed into roots.

4. "Seminarii:" "nurseries," as they are more commonly called.