RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. 



15 



with straw ; these cuttings wore watered at 

 random every day, taking no other precaution 

 than that of not disturbing their roots. This 

 simple method, the only one, it may be said, 

 in use in our Colonies, is far from offering the 

 difficulties which present themselves under the 

 latitude of Paris, to secure the striking of the 

 cuttings of plants foreign to - our climate. 

 Here, in order to insure success, we take 

 shoots and branches in full vegetation. In 

 the Colonics, the gardener always chooses in 

 preference the wood which has finished its 

 growth. With us, on the contrary, there are 

 plants whose cuttings in our glass-houses do 

 not root uidess they are quite soft, and just 

 before the wood begins to assume its natural 

 colour; such are Semecarpus anacardium, 

 Swietenia mahogaoi. Euphoria lit-chi, &e. 

 These cuttings cannot bear exposure to the 

 air, even for a moment. They must be 

 planted the moment they are taken off, and 

 covered by a bell-glass. However, this treat- 

 ment will not succeed with milky, gummy, or 

 resinous plants, such as Yahea 

 Araucaria, Euphorbia, 



&c., whose cuttings, if 

 placed in the earth as 

 soon as they are ta- 

 ken off, seldom root, 

 but almost always rot. 

 Such cuttings secrete 

 from their wounds a 

 peculiar matter, which ^^ 

 must be discharged % 

 before they arc plant- 1^ 

 ed. For this purpose ^^^5== 

 I put them upside 

 down in pots ; I then fill the pots with rather 

 moist earth, without pressing it in, leaving 

 the wound alone uncovered. I leave them 24 

 or 36 hours, and sometimes more, in this po- 

 sition, until the superabundant matter which 

 they contain is thrown off. I then wash the 

 wound with a sponge, and the cutting takes 

 root more or loss easily, in proportion as the 

 wound is clean. I know no tree from which 

 we may make cuttings in the open air, with 

 herbaceous shoots, without a bell-glass ; but 

 those herbaceous plants which have some ap- 

 pearance of wood, such as the Pelargonium, 

 Geranium, Cineraria, and Calceolaria may be 

 made to strike without heat, and under the 

 shade of a wall. These cuttings are shaded 

 with straw mats duiing the day ; however. 



they always succeed best in a cool frame. In 

 order to make the plants which I have just 

 named strike by cuttings, we commonly take 

 the extremities of the branches after flower- 

 ing. The soil which suits them best is peat 

 mixed with well rotted animal or vegetable 

 mould. Among Roses, the China, being the 

 hardiest, is propagated by cuttings in peat 

 soil, with wood one year old ; the other sorts 

 strike in a hot-house, and under a bell-glass, 

 for which purpose choice should be made of 

 herbaceous shoots, taken from plants which 

 have themselves been kept in a green-house. 

 No. IV. Cuttings upon exhausted 

 Hot-beds. — There are some plants which 

 cannot be multiplied effectually in the open 

 ground, and which require a mild and uni- 

 form heat, in a still atmosphere, liking, how- 

 ever, a little light, which should be given 



1. — Propagaling H> 



them night and morning. The temperature 

 which suits such plants when under propaga- 

 tion, is that which is found under the glass 

 of an exhausted hot-bed. After we have per- 

 mitted this bed to lose its greatest heat, we 

 put over it a low frame ; the pots containing 

 the cuttings are then plunged in the soil of 

 this bed. In this way we successfully propa- 

 gate Diosmas, Fuchsias, Heaths, single Ca- 

 mellias intended for grafting on, and similar 

 plants. 



No. V. Cuttings in Propagating Hou- 

 ses. — But the exhausted hot-bed is suited 

 only to a limited number of species of plants. 

 Many plants, even oranges, would not find 

 there a heat sufficient to enable them to make 

 roots. Plants whose nature it is to grow 



