Columbia Encyclopedia World Factbook American Heritage Coll. Typically the branch is bent and a section that has been slit or broken on the underside is covered with soil and held in place by means of stakes or pins. Trench layering induces new shoots from a length of buried branch. In mound, or stool, layering, the many shoots of a closely cropped young plant are heaped with soil. Layering is used mostly for multiplying plants not easily propagated from cuttings.
Some plants propagate naturally by layering, e.g., raspberries, strawberries, and chrysanthemums.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.