THE FLORAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 169 



PROPAGATION OF ROSES BY CUTTINGS. 



j)T is generally believed by amateurs and others that 

 Moss, Provence, French, Damask, and Bourbon roses, 

 etc., are difficult to increase by cuttings ; but by the 

 following method these sorts may be raised in abun- 

 dance. Let a bed of well-fermented stable litter and 

 leaves be made by the side of a north wall, and place a one or 

 two-light frame on it, so as to face the north. In this put about 

 eight inches of leaf-mould that has been previously well soaked 

 with water; then spread over all about three inches of sharp pit 

 sand, and make the whole firm and level. The back part of a 

 span-roofed pit, running east and west, with a wall in the centre, 

 is also a suitable place for the purpose. It should be filled to within 

 a few inches of the glass with the same kind of material. In 

 selecting the cuttings, tolerably weak wood of the present year's 

 growth should be taken, if it is sufficiently ripened at the base, or 

 nas made one full-formed leaf. Strip the cutting with the finger 

 and thumb, and smooth the base, reserving the detached portion of 

 the parent bark ; cut them close above the first leaf, and insert them 

 in the sand, but not so thick as that their leaves will overlap one 

 another. When this is finished, the bed should be watered, to 

 settle the soil about them, and they should have plenty of air for 

 the first four days ; but it ought to be lessened by degrees, so as to 

 gradually inure them to a confined atmosphere. 



As the preservation of their leaves in a healthy state is essential 

 to success, the bed may be formed, and the cuttings put in on the 

 same day, without waiting until the material becomes heated, as a 

 thin covering of cellular tissue should be formed over the wounded 

 end of the cutting before that takes place. In the third week the 

 greater part will be rooted, and in the fourth they should be potted 

 off into o'0-size pots, in a soil composed of leaf-mould and loam. 

 They should be afterwards removed into a damp frame or pit, 

 without any water being given to their roots ; but they may be 

 slightly syringed over their leaves, and when they become well 

 rooted in the new soil, they may be hardened off and shifted into 

 larger-sized pots, or planted out in a sheltered border, where they 

 will make fine plants for the next year. By again levelling the 

 surface of the beds, and making the cuttings to two eyes, always 

 preserving one leaf, Tea-scented, China, Noisette, and Boursault 

 roses, etc., will root freely in it, without any further preparation} 

 but if a considerable quantity of the first-named sorts are required, 

 either the old beds should be taken down and a little fresh fermented 

 dun^ added, or a new one should be made, using the same sort of 

 materials as are recommended above. The young wood should be 

 taken before the blooms are expanded, and the cuttings prepared 

 Bimilar to what 1 have already described. The young shoots of 

 what is called the second growth may also be used for cuttings. 

 They should be taken when two full-formed leaves are made, 

 moothed at the base, and cut down to the first leaf — then planted 



June 



