250 PEACTICAL GARDENING. 



this first process that is hastened by autumnal insertion, while 

 the plant above is totally at rest, and when the upper portion 

 is excited, the roots grow as fast as the spring buds and leaves 

 require their aid. When cuttings of hard- wooded plants are 

 apparently at rest above the soil, we may frequently observe 

 in the slowly rooting kinds, that the bottom has swelled into 

 a lump ; a sure sign that it is doing well, although it may 

 even then take months to root : indeed, the cuttings will fre- 

 quently grow with only this callus to support them for a time, 

 and if they are neglected at this critical period, they will 

 assuredly perish. 



As soon as cuttings, which are generally put too close 

 together in pots to grow long in health, are fairly rooted, 

 they should be carefully potted into single pots, and treated 

 until they are established in their new abode with more than 

 ordinary care ; they should not be exposed to the air or sun 

 at first, and above all things, they should be well supplied 

 with moisture. Out of door subjects, and especially of the 

 deciduous kind, should be treated as the parent plants are. 

 They must not, for instance, be removed until the leaves fall, 

 and they may then be planted out at larger distances, to 

 grow into strength, or be placed where they are to remain. 

 China roses — with which we class, by the way, all the 

 shiooth-barked kinds, for they all strike freely — may, towards 

 the autumn, be put very thicldy into a pot or pan, and 

 plunged in an old hot-bed "without covering except from 

 actual frost ; or they may be inserted very close together in 

 beds in the oj)en ground, and have no other care than being 

 covered with litter in very severe weather, and they avlU for 

 the most part succeed — presuming that the rule for catting 

 up carefully to a joint, but not into it, and having one joint 

 above the soil, has been attended to. 'No matter how long a 

 shoot may be, every two joints will make a good cutting. 

 These, when rooted, must be planted out with plenty of 

 room to grow; but they must be well rooted and growing 

 before they are moved. If this has been delayed till the 

 spring, they must have a little gentle bottom heat to excite 

 early rooting ; because the plant is in a more active state, 

 and would grow and exhaust the sap within it, before the 

 base became callused and produced any supply. The growth, 

 therefore, should be checked above and excited below, that 

 the process may be hastened. In roses, however, as in many 



