CUTTINGS. 
174 
bo 
CUTTINGS. 
mit of the plant; though this rule | 
has many exceptions. A shoot of 
the soft-wooded kinds, which strike 
easily, may be divided into several 
cuttings, all of which will grow; 
but with all the hard-wooded kinds, 
only one cutting must be taken from 
the tip ofeach shoot. Shoots which 
are of the average strength, are pre- 
ferable to those that are either very 
strong or very weak; and those are 
best that have only leaf-buds, and 
no flower-buds on them. 
Some cuttings which are difficult 
to strike, are directed to have bot- 
tom heat. This means, that the 
pots in which they are planted are 
to be plunged into a hotbed, that 
the stimulus afforded by the heat 
may induce the cuttings to throw) 
out roots. Care must, however, be | 
taken that the hotbed is not too hot, | 
as in that case it sometimes burns | 
the tender roots of the cuttings. Mr. | 
Alexander Forsyth, a very intel- | 
Fig. 7.—Forsyth’s Mode. 
larger pot (a thirty-two), a, and te 
have the space ¢ filled with small 
pebbles ; e is a layer of peat earth 
or moss, and d a covering of sand. 
This kind of pot is very useful for 
all cuttings that are liable to damp 
ligent young gardener, recommends | off, as the water trickles down 
the following plan: “ Take a wide- | 
mouthed forty-eight size pot, and 
put some potsherds at the bottom, | 
in the usual manner. Then take 
a wide-mouthed small sixty, and 
put a piece of clay in the bottom, to 
stop the hole, and then place it in- 
side the other, so that the tops of 
both pots may be on a level. The 
space between the pots must then 
be filled in with sand or other soil, 
and the cuttings inserted as shown 
in fig. 7. The inner pot should be 
filled with water, and the outer pot 
may then be plunged in the ground, 
or into a hotbed, and covered with | 
a glass, or not, according to the. 
nature of the cutting. In fig. 7, a. 
shows the clay stopping of the inner 
pot; 6, the drainage of the pot-| 
sherds ; ¢, the sand, or other soil, in 
which the cuttings are inserted; 
and d, the water in the inner pot.” 
Another method, which is shown 
in fig. 8, is to have a small pot (a, 
sixty), 5, turned upside down in a 
Fig. 8.—Fyffe’s Mode of Striking Cuttings 
through the pebbles; and if the pot 
be placed in bottom heat, the hot 
vapour rises through the pebbles in 
the same way, without burning the 
| roots. 
The following are the principal 
kinds of plants propagated by cut- 
tings, divided into classes, each of 
Ss. 
A > 
se a 
