CURRANT 



263 



CUTTING 



best remedy that has yet been found is to well dust the 

 bushes, when the new growth is being made, by a mixture 

 of two parts of flowers of sulphur, to one of powdered 

 lime. This remedy may be applied when the plantation 

 is extensive and the mite getting troublesome. Should 

 the bushes be very badly infested and the crop relatively 

 worthless, the best plan is to grub up the bushes in March 

 and burn them, root and branch, and make a new planta- 

 tion on a fresh piece of ground. 



CURRANT SPHINX. (Trockilum tipuli/orme.) Every 

 one acquainted with old gardens must have frequently 

 noticed that one or more of the branches of the currant- 

 trees tenanting them have suddenly withered and died 

 without any apparent cause. In such cases, if the wood 

 of the branch be split down the centre, the pith will be 

 found all consumed, the tube where it had been blackened, 

 and nothing remaining but the excrements of a cater- 

 pillar, which may also be caught at his work of destruc- 

 tion if the examination is made so soon as the branch 

 first shows symptoms of withering. This caterpillar 

 fleshy, whitish, with four yellowish-brown spots near 

 its head is the larva of the Currant Sphinx. The parent 

 moth is beautiful, and may be seen at the end of May 

 and early in June during hot sunshine, either settled 

 on the leaves of the currant, or flying around the flowers 

 of the syringa and lilac. It is about three-quarters of an 

 inch across the wings when these are quite opened ; the 

 prevailing colour is bluish-black, with various parts 

 yellow ; the antennae black ; the breast with a yellow 

 line on each side ; the abdomen, or lower part of the 

 body, has three yellow rings round it in the females, 

 and four in the males ; the four wings are barred and 

 veined with black ; it has a brush of fine scales at the 

 end of its abdomen, which fan it can expand as it pleases. 

 The Red, White, and Black Currant, and, we think, the 

 Gooseberry, are all liable to its attacks. It lays its eggs 

 at this time in openings of the bark of a young shoot ; 

 and the caterpillar, immediately it is hatched, penetrates 

 to its pith, and eats its way down this until it reaches 

 the pith of the main branch. The only securitive 

 measures are to kill the moth whenever seen, and to 

 split open the withered branches, and serve the cater- 

 pillars similarly. The Cottage Gardener, ii. 115. 



CURTTSIA. Hassagay-tree. (In honour of the 

 late William Curtis, who originated the Botanical 

 Magazine. Nat. ord. Cornels [Cornaceae]. Linn. 3-7>t- 

 andria, i-Monogynia.) 



Cornels are entirely distinct from Caprifoils, with 

 which they have long been associated. The Hottentots 

 and Caffres make from this tree the shafts of their 

 javelins. Greenhouse evergreen tree ; sandy loam and 

 leaf- mould and manure ; cuttings in sand, under glass, 

 in heat. 



C. fagi'nea (beech-leaved). 30. Pale. Cape of Good 

 Hope. 1775. 



CUSCU'TA. Dodder. (From kechout, its Arabic 

 name. Nat. ord. Dodders [Convolvulacea?]. Linn. 

 5-Pentandria, 2-Digynia.) 



One peculiarity in all the Dodders is that their seeds 

 germinate in the earth ; but, as soon as the roots of the 

 seedlings are grown sufficiently to take hold of a neigh- 

 bouring plant, or even of each other, they lose their 

 attachment to the soil. Curious parasitical plants, 

 with white flowers ; sow in April. They will live upon 

 almost any plant they can lay hold of, such as the common 

 stinging-nettle, clover, hemp, &c., and are often trouble- 

 some where Ericas are grown, for when they get on the 

 plants they cripple them very much. 



At one time Cuscuta aurea a variety of one of the 

 English Dodders was grown as a decorative plant, but 

 it was found a troublesome weed, and it is some years 

 since we have seen it. 



STOVE. 



C. america'na (American). August. N. Amer. 1816. 

 ,, Hooke'ri (Hooker's). See C. REFLEXA. 

 ,, odora'ta (sweet-scented). January. Lima. 1820. 

 ,, verruca' sa (waited). See C. REFLEXA. 



GREENHOUSE. 



C. austra'lis (southern). August. N. Holland. 1818. 

 ,, chile nsis (Chilian). August. Chili. 1821. 



HARDY. 



C. caltfo'rnica ( Calif ornian). July. California. 1847. 

 ,, chine'nsis (Chinese). August. China. 

 ,, Epili'num (flax-frequenter). July. Britain. 

 Epi'thymum (true dodder). July. Britain. 

 europafa (European). July. Britain. 



,, lupulifo'rmis 'hop-like). July. Europe. 1824. 

 ,, macroca'rpa (.large-seeded). July. 

 ). July. 



Siberia. 1827. 

 Europe, Orient. 



mono'gyna (one-styled). 



1818. 



,, refte'xa (reflexed). August. Himalayas. 1821. 

 Trifo'lii (clover dodder). July. Britain. 

 Upcra'ftii (Upcraft's). Grows successfully on the 



Potato. Eastern Tibet. 1906. 



CUSPA'RIA. (From cuspis, a point ; in allusion to 

 the filaments, which have no anthers. Nat. ord. 

 Rutacea?. Sometimes included in Galipea.) 



Stove annual and shrub. Seeds and cuttings of half- 

 ripened wood in sand in a close case. Loam, a little 

 peat and sand. 

 C. heterophy'Ua (various-leaved). 2. Blue. July. 



Brazil. 1813. Annual. 

 odorati'ssima (most-scented). 2. White. May. 



Brazil. 

 ,, undula'ta (waved). White. Brazil. 1892. Shrub. 



CUSSO'NIA. (Named after P. Cusson, a French 

 botanist. Nat. ord. Ivyworts [Araliaceae], Linn. 5- 

 Pentandria, 2-Digynia. Allied to Panax.) 



Greenhouse evergreen shrubs from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, with green flowers ; cuttings in sand, under a 

 glass, with bottom-heat ; loam and peat. 

 C Krau'ssii (Krauss'). 3 to 6. S. Africa. 



panicul'ata (panicled). 6. S. Africa. 1795. 



spica'ta (spike- flowered). 6. 1789. 



thrysiflo'ra (thyrse-flowered). See C. PANICULATA. 



tri'ptera (three- winged). 4. 1816. 



CUSTARD APPLE. Ano'na. 



CUTTING is a part of a plant capable of emitting roots, 

 and of becoming an individual similar to its parent. 

 The circumstances requisite to effect this are a suitable 

 temperature and degree of moisture. Bottom-heat is 

 essential for almost all cuttings, as it draws the sap down- 

 wards, while a warm surface takes it upwards, and leaves 

 the base of the cuttings without any power of forming 

 roots. Some plants only root when cut quite close from 

 beneath a joint or leaf-bud ; others will root from any part 

 of the stem. Fuchsias and Verbenas are examples of the 

 latter, while Carnations must be cut or broken off close 

 to a joint. 



A rooted cutting is not a new plant ; it is only an ex- 

 tension of the pa_rent, gifted with precisely the same habits, 

 and delighting in exactly the same degree of heat, light, 

 and moisture, and in the same food. There are numbers 

 of plants which strike most readily from the young shoots ; 

 others from partially ripened wood ; some from a leaf 

 with a bud at its base ; a fourth set from off-shoots 

 from the base of the old plants ; and a fifth from leaves 

 or portions of leaves only ; and in some rare cases, from 

 the mere scolloped edges of the leaves ; whilst several 

 can only be propagated by cuttings of the roots, and a 

 few by cuttings of the flower-stems. Particular cases 

 will be described under the names of the species requiring 

 some peculiar mode. In this place only general hints 

 can be given. 



Cuttings of Hardy Flowering Plants. Most kinds of 

 quick-growing, soft-wooded plants are best propagated 

 by the young shoots or tops of the plants. The following 

 list embraces the principal of them : Soft-wooded plants. 

 Anagallis, Antirrhinums, Calceolarias, Carnations, 

 Chrysanthemums, Dahlias, Dianthus, Double Wall- 

 flowers, Double Stocks, Gorterias, Gaillardias, Dwarf 

 Lobelias, Fuchsias, Pelargonium, Petunias, Pentstemons, 

 Pinks, Salvias, and Verbenas. These may all be placed 

 in pots, in sand, in a frame heated either by leaves, 

 manure, or tan. or in a pit or house built purposely, and 

 heated by a tank and hot-water pipes. Greenhouse hard 

 wooded plants or shrubs that strike best from youn? 

 shoots or tops : Acacias, Aphelexis, Azalea (Chinese), 

 Boronia, Bossiaea, Chironia, Chorizema. Crowea, Correa, 

 Cytisus, Daviesia, Dilwynia, Epacris, Eriostemon buxi- 

 folius (for stocks to graft the other species on), Erica, 



