FBOFAGATION OF CAFE HEATHS BY CUTTINGS. 8] 



Tiie cutting selected should be chosen from the healthiest plants, and 

 taken off close to where they push from the old wood. In preparing 

 the cuttings, the leaves should be cut clean from the shoot, either with 

 a sharp knife or fine pair of scissors ; the end should be cut transversely 

 across, in a neat, manner, so as not to leave the wound ragged or bruised. 

 The leaves should upon no account be shortened, neither should any 

 more of them be taken off than just so far as the cutting is to be 

 inserted into the sand. 



With respect to the proper season for putting in cuttings of tins 

 order of plants, and indeed of most other slow-growing kinds, the 

 spring is the best, as the plants will attain such a size and vigour before 

 tiie winter as to be able to survive that season. 



It sometimes happens, however, that cuttings cannot be obtained in 

 a proper slate at that season : when such is the case, recourse must be 

 had to inducing the old plants to make wood fit for the purpose. This 

 is to be effected by placing them in a little heat early in spring ; they 

 will then make plenty of young wood, which is the best for cuttings. 

 In so extensive a genus it is impossible to state any particular period of 

 the year for commencing the operation of propagation by cuttings of 

 each sort, because some one or other of them are in a fit state for the 

 purpose on almost every day in the year ; therefore, the time for 

 putting in cuttings should be regulated rather by the state of the plant 

 than by the time of the year, but generally in spring and the early part 

 of summer. 



In extensive nursery collections, where great quantities of plants are 

 wanted, one pot is filled with cuttings of the same species, when such 

 can be got in sufficient quantities; but in private collections this is not 

 necessary, for a few plants of a sort, in general, are all that is required. 

 "When this is the case, the kinds selected to be put in the same pot 

 should be nearly of the same habit, as can be judged of at the time. 



Unless this is attended to, one sort will be found to strike root in a 

 much shorter time than others of the same pot, which makes it more 

 inconvenient when potting them out. This, however, must always 

 happen to a certain extent, for a little difference in the age or firmness 

 of the cutting, even when the work is performed by the most expe- 

 rienced hand, will often make a difference in the time required to strike 

 root. 



When the pot is thus filled witli cuttings, it should be well watered 

 with a fine rose watering-pot, and placed in a close shady part of a low 

 close stove ; and if there be a tan-pit of gentle heat, plunge to the rim, 

 and cover each pot with a bell-glass. The sand must not become dry, 

 or certain deatli to the cuttings will follow. 



However excellent the above mode of striking Heaths may be, it 

 cannot, under all circumstances, be applied in practice, because there 

 are many cultivators who have not the convenience of a stove to place 

 them in. A substitute for the stove may be found in a well-regulated 

 cucumber or melon bed of gentle heat. The reason for applying a 

 gentle heat to tiie cuttings is to excite them to the greatest possible 

 degree, during which they will, if they are in a fit state, strike root 

 very soon. 



