" M. S. B.," Portland, Oregon. A great many clematises seed very freely, and are then easily propagated. The seeds are sown as soon as ripe, if one has a greenhouse or cool pit, using a shallow box or pan for sowing the seed. The young plants come up before spring, and may be put into small pots, and in May planted in the open ground, placing leaves, corn-stalks or some litter over them in fall to keep them from being drawn out by frost. Sometimes the seeds are saved in paper bags till spring and then sown in the open ground, but in such cases some, and sometimes all, the seeds will remain in the ground a year before they grow.

Some kinds do not produce seeds freely. These have to be raised by layers or by grafting. Layering is a certain and sure way of raising the plants where no great numbers are desired. About mid-summer, when the branch is half mature, a slit half through the stem is made with a pen-knife, and this slit portion bent down into very rich soil. Roots will come out from the slit part, and the branch will generally be well enough rooted to make a good new plant by autumn. To increase in large numbers every joint can be used as a graft if desired. These sections are best taken when half ripe, and spliced by whip, cleft, or any form of grafting on to a piece of root of any kind that can be easily obtained, and the grafted root then kept in a frame or under a glass for a week or two to check evaporation till the union has been accomplished. By one or another of these three modes all clematises are raised. - Ed. G. M.