152 THE FORCING GARDEN. 
This is very scarce in some parts, but no one can success- 
fully propagate Heaths with the peat of Dartmoor, nor 
with that which has been dug out of boggy places; the 
peat I mean is to be had from Wimbledon Common, but 
the best I ever saw or used, is found in Epping Forest 
near High Beech. A few sacks of this can be had for 
a few shillings. Having the pots one-third filled with 
fine broken crocks, and the other part filled up with 
peat, and made firm (the peat should not be perfectly 
dust-dry but half dry, as this is the proper state in 
which to keep it), insert the little delicate cuttings with 
a very small pointed, smooth stick all over the pots at 
one inch apart and three-eighths of an inch from the 
side, so as to admit of a bell-glass being placed over 
them which should fit close inside each. A three-inch 
pot will hold about a dozen cuttings. Insert them one 
half of their length into the soil; do it very carefully, 
and gently press the soil to the base of them, but great 
care is needed in handling the tender cuttings or they 
may be bruised, which would cause a failure. 
Having filled a pot with these cuttings, give it a 
gentle watering with a very fine rose water-pot, and, 
after allowing the cuttings to dry off, place the glass 
over them, and then plunge the pots nearly up to the 
rims in a tan bed that is half spent, or over a very 
mild tank, avoiding a greater bottom heat than 50°, as 
they will not bear much heat; the glasses must be 
taken off and wiped dry every morning and then be 
replaced ; strong sunlight must be avoided. If all 
things are as they should be, these cuttings will have 
struck root in the course of three weeks, when the bell- 
glasses may be taken off, and in the course of a week 
more they may be potted off into thumbs ; but care is 
