30 ON STRIKING PLANTS. 



the propagation and culture of plants. As to the first, much has 

 been written of attempts to strike cuttings in water, but from my 

 own experience in such attempts, I am satisfied that that method 

 will not supersede the use of sand and the bell-glass. The plan of 

 Mr. John Street, gardener at Biel, East Lothian, given at page 

 234 Vol. III. of the Cabinet, of striking cuttings in moss, is far 

 more deserving of attention ; I have tried it various ways, and 

 think I have in some respects, improved upon his method (the 

 results of which I may communicate hereafter) and always 

 with success. At present I incline to the belief that there are 

 few or no plants capable of propagation by cuttings, that may not 

 be struck in this way more certainly and more successfully, than 

 by any other means, as now practised by water, sand or soil. Let 

 any of your practical readers try the experiment with pure moss, 

 (hypnum) in the ensuing spring, and I feel confident they will 

 come to be of the same opinion; but the mode I have to com- 

 municate is still more novel. 



Having purchased a plant of Phlox cordata grandiflora, so high- 

 ly spoken of in the Gardener's Gazette, another publication to 

 which I subscribe, I watched its progress towards flowering with 

 much interest, but with L^allah Rookh, I may exclaim, 



" I never loved a tree or flower, but 'twas the first to fade away." 



My Phlox, did not certainly fade in the sense of the poet. Its 

 destruction was the work of a day, or rather of a moment It was 

 on the 6th of September last, the day of the memorable storm, 

 among whose dreadful devastations, the wreck of the Forfarshire 

 stands recorded as not the least apalling. I hurried home at an 

 earlier hour than usual from the Gude-town, as much to save my 

 own head from the winged missiles of slates and chimney pots that 

 were every where descending, as to save the heads of my Dahlias 

 in my garden in the suburbs, when amidst their wreck, I had the 

 additional mortification of beholding the only two stalks upon my 

 Phlox snapt through and through, not a shred of bark left 

 undissevered whereby to splice them up again. Well thought 

 I, here 1 must wait another twelve months to see the Phlox cor- 

 data grandiflora, shew the splendid blossoms so be-praised by the 

 Gardener's Gazette. But may the root not perish? was the 

 question ! Can I do nothing with these broken stems ? was the 



