PROPAGATION OF PLANTS BY CUTTINGS. 93 



that made from one in the proper state. In propagating 

 woody plants, such as Roses, Azaleas, Daphnes, etc., this 

 test of breaking or snapping does not apply, although all 

 these will root, if taken in the same way; yet we find h 

 enfeebles their growth more than if the cutting is allowed 

 to get harder. What this degree of hardness is, it is 

 difficult to describe ; in Roses it assumes the proper de- 

 gree of hardness when the shoot develops the flower-bud. 

 But, although we do not take Rose cuttings in the same 

 succulent condition as we would a Fuchsia or a Verbena, 



it must not be imagined 

 that it is necessary to 

 make the cutting at a 

 joint. The doing away 

 with this custom in 

 propagating Roses en- 

 ables us to increase the 

 product of a plant at 

 least twice as much as 

 if we practised under 

 this dogma, for the cut- 

 ting will root just as 

 well, and become quite 

 as good a plant, if made 

 with a single eye, (figure 



Fig. 26.-ROSE WITH SINGLE EYE. ^ ^ j f ^ ^ & ^ 



having two or three eyes, (figure 27). Although we have 

 said that cuttings can be as easily rooted without being cut 

 at a joint as otherwise, yet there are, in some plants, other 

 considerations that necessitate that they should never be 

 cut except at a joint ; for example, a Dahlia cutting will 

 root quite as freely, make as fine a flowering plant 

 in fall, and the tuberous root increase to its full size; 

 but it will not be able to start again in spring, because 

 the Dahlia pushes only from the crown of the root, and if 

 the crown has not been formed from a cutting cut close 



