72 PROPAGATION BY DIVISION. [CHAP. IV. 



by no means an uncommon one. In preparing 

 cuttings of roses, it is always advisable to wear 

 a gauntlet, as shown in fig. 8., to prevent the 

 thorns from injuring the ringers. Cuttings of 

 delicate plants are generally covered with a 

 bell-glass pressed closely on the earth, to keep 

 a regular degree of moisture round the plants, 

 and to prevent too rapid an evaporation; but 

 some cuttings when thus treated are very apt 

 to damp off, and require to have the glass 

 taken up occasionally and wiped. Cuttings of 

 greenhouse plants, I have been told by practical 

 gardeners, strike best when put into the pots as 

 thickly as possible : and, as they are generally 

 well watered when first put into the ground, 

 they will, if covered closely with a glass, very 

 seldom require any watering afterwards. As 

 long as they continue looking fresh they are 

 doing well ; and as soon as they begin to grow 

 they should be transplanted into small thumb 

 pots, and supplied moderately, but regularly, 

 with water ; changing the pots for larger ones 

 as the plants increase in size, and according 

 to their nature. Sometimes the pots are sunk 

 in a hotbed, or a bed of sand heated by a 

 tank of hot water below it, to induce the cut- 

 tings to take root, and this is called applying 

 bottom heat ; and sometimes one flower-pot is 

 placed within another a size or two larger, and 

 the inner one filled with water (the hole at the 

 bottom being first stopped with clay or putty), 

 and the cuttings placed in the outer one. All 

 these expedients are more or less efficacious; 

 and the great object with all of them is, to 

 excite and stimulate the plant. Cuttings of 



