106 ON INCREASING PLANTS OF THE CACTUS TRIBE. 



powder with coal-powder or brickdust, and but very seldom lost a 

 cutting or taken-off head, except when the weather, immediately after 

 cutting, became dull and wet for a long time. I even cannot believe 

 that the striking of the cuttings will be advanced by plunging the 

 pots into a hot-pit ; on the contrary, the surest method appears to me 

 to be to expose the newly-potted cuttings to a most concentrated sun- 

 heat, by placing them under a sloping light of the greenhouse ; and 

 it does no harm, although the pots get so hot that they can scarcely 

 be touched. 



When the cuttings are duly dry, they must be potted into as small 

 pots as possible, and the same cautions I mentioned when speaking 

 of re-potting well observed. Some put cuttings into somewhat moist 

 soil, and let them stand for a fortnight without watering ; but I 

 always plunge the pots of my cuttings, immediately after potting, 

 once into water, and keep them in it till they are completely saturated ; 

 after which I let them stand for twenty-four hours in the shade. I 

 then bring them to the sun, not watering at all till all the mould is 

 completely dry. Which of these methods is the better I do not know ; 

 the first may, perhaps, be the surest in doubtful weather and an ad- 

 vanced season ; but the latter, at all events, will lead soonest to the 

 purpose. Besides, I have tried, as an experiment, to take cuttings 

 of several Cacteaj last winter. I potted them about Christmas ; ant), 

 after a good plunging into water, placed the pots upon a heated stove, 

 where they soon got dry, and, by a good daily supply of water, began 

 to strike roots in the course of about a week. 



It is of great importance for imported Cacte?e, to cut off all the 

 roots, though healthy and strong-looking, and to clear off whatever is 

 withered and soft about the plant itself, and cannot be loosened with 

 the fingers, with a sharp knife, without bruising. They must then 

 be left lying for some time, and the cut exposed as much as possible 

 to the sun. When these precautionary measures are not taken, the 

 plant will get rotten from below, and must be put into greater danger, 

 by cutting into the healthy flesh, than it can incur when put into the 

 soil with a dry and healed-up stump ; and, although it may happen 

 that no rotting takes place, it is sometimes the case that the plants 

 will stand for several years without growing in the least, it being 

 more difficult for young roots to shoot out from the remaining portions 

 of the old roots than out of the body of the plant itself. 



