64 



RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. 



Fig:. 14 — Heel-cutlivg 

 of Gustavia aiigitsta. 



time, although they may have been injured 

 hy the vinleiice used in jdaiiting them. There 

 is in the possession of M. Jacques, at Neuilly, 

 a specimen of Sophora japonica which took 

 root in this manner. 



No. XII. Cuttings with a Heel. — 

 This method, called cutting with a heel, is 

 well known ; it consists in carefully raising 

 up a branch (see fig. 14,) in 

 such a manner that the wood 

 wdiich unites it to the prin- 

 cipal stem is detached with 

 the cutting ; this wood has 

 the advantage of exciting the 

 development of the roots. 

 The branches which are thus 

 cut ought to be two or three 

 years old ; the roots come 

 out better from this wood 

 than from one year old shoots. 

 Such cuttings are made the 

 length of three or four e3'es, 

 of which two or three are 

 buried, and one is always left above ground. 



Cuttings by Branches. — The evergreens 

 which we cultivate in the open air ma}' be 

 multiplied by cuttings, if we choose the 

 branches of the preceding year at the time 

 when the sap begins to rise. The month of 

 March seems to me the best for the climate 

 of Paris. The Abies Deodara, which I intro- 

 duced into France some years ago, and which 

 resists the severity of our winters so well, 

 may be multiplied perfectly by cuttings of its 

 branches. 



The instrument with which 

 the branch intended to be put 

 into the earth is cut, ought to 

 be so sharp that the wound 

 presents no raggedness ; it is 

 usually cut rather a little be- 

 low the petiole than above it ; 

 if this operation has been well 

 performed, the base of the pe- 

 tiole ought to remain after the 

 cutting, as is shown in fig. 15 ; 

 the same branch cut into seve- 

 ral portions, following the same 

 plan, forms as many cuttings 

 as there are pieces. The leaves which might 

 hinder the planting of the cutting are cut at 

 one-twentieth or one-sixteenth of an inch from 

 the base of the petiole. 



There are certain plants, as the Clusia, for 



example, W'hose leaves we do not cut off. 

 Buds are often formed in the axils, which 

 pierce the earth and develop themselves in 

 the air. It has been said, and some persons 

 still say, that such cuttings never form fine 

 trees ; this idea seems to me erroneous, and, 

 in defence of what I say, I shall quote the 

 examples of Araucaria excelsa and Cunuing- 

 hami, which, raised from cuttings, cannot be 

 distinguished from plants raised from seeds ; 

 Poplars, Abies lanceolata, &c., are in the 

 same ease. 



It is not, however, an indifferent matter, 

 whether such or such a branch is taken for 

 striking ; there are some trees which, when 

 lateral branches are operated on, only give 

 lateral branches, and never form ar head ; 

 such are Araucarias, Abies, Proteas, some 

 species of Leguminous and other trees ; but 

 if we detach the head of these plants to make 

 a cutting, we obtain a plant in every respect 

 similar to that produced from a seed of the 

 same species. 



However there are some species of trees 

 whose cuttings made from lateral branches 

 will produce, under the callus, when arrived 

 at a certain strength, a true shoot which will 

 not be long in showing itself, and will one 

 day form a plant having the same appearance 

 as that which a cutting made from the head 

 would have produced. Physiology teaches 

 us that the callus which is formed at the base 

 of a cutting is nothing more than a successive 

 collection of a multitude of small bladders or 

 nipples, which are white when they are formed 

 under the earth, and take their proper green 

 colour as soon as they are exposed to the 

 light : these bladders 



are easily seen by the 



naked eye. 



When they are suf- 

 ficiently collected to 



give birth to a new 



being, the bud then 



developes itself, and 



the tree begins to 



grow ; such is the ef- 

 fect which is remai-k- 



ed in the cuttings of 



Abies lanceolata, Gin- 



ko biloba, and many 



others. 



Fig. 16 gives anp.^^g_^^^^.^,^^^^.^^^^ 



idea of this phenome- ceoiata. 



