21 4 ON PROP A GA T10N B Y CUTTINGS. 



under glass in a cold pit, and shaded during sunshine till they vege- 

 tate. Cape and Australian seeds, and in general all seeds from warm 

 climates, are sown as soon as received, in a mixture of loam, peat, and 

 sand, and placed in a temperature similar to that of the growing season 

 in the country they came from. 



Sowing seeds in powdered charcoal has been tried in the Botanic 

 Garden at Munich with extraordinary success. Seeds of cucumbers 

 and melons sown in it germinated one day sooner than others sown in 

 soil, and plunged in the same hotbed ; becoming strong plants, while 

 the others remained comparatively stationary. Ferns sown on the 

 surface of finely-sifted charcoal, germinate quickly and vigorously ; and 

 it seems not improbable, that this material may be found as useful in 

 exciting seeds difficult to germinate, as it is in rooting cuttings difficult 

 to strike. Ferns also do well sown on the surface of porous pots or 

 stone, and on the dark sides of damp brick walls. 



On Propagation by Cuttings. 



A cutting is a portion of a shoot containing either leaf-buds, or 

 eaves in the axils of which buds may be produced. It must at least 

 be of sufficient length to have two buds or two joints -one at the 

 lower extremity to produce roots, and another at the upper end to 

 produce a shoot. A portion of a stem with only one bud is not con- 

 sidered a cutting, but is technically an eye or joint. It is almost 

 unnecessary to state that the cause of success is to be found in the 

 analogy between a cutting and a seed ; the bud being the embryo 

 plant, and the alburnum of the cutting containing the nutriment which 

 is to support the development of the bud, till it has formed roots 

 sufficient to absorb nutriment from the soil. The roots formed by the 

 cuttings are protruded from the section at its lower extremity, and are, 

 in fact, a continuation of the alburnous process, which, had the cutting 

 not been separated from the plant, would have been employed in adding 

 to its young wood and inner bark. Every cutting must either contain 

 a stock of alimentary matter in its alburnum, as in the case of cuttings 

 of ripened wood without leaves, or it must contain .healthy leaves, 

 capable of elaborating alimentary matter from the moisture absorbed 

 from the soil joined to the alburnous matter already in the cutting. 

 All cuttings may be divided into two kinds deciduous, as the common 

 gooseberry or willow ; or evergreen, as most greenhouse plants, such as 

 the camellia, the geranium, the fuchsia, heaths, &c. In both cases the 

 cutting, after being planted, is excited by heat, and supported by the 

 moisture absorbed from the soil. In the case of the leafless cutting 

 the buds expand, and preceding, or simultaneous with, their develop- 

 ment, roots are formed ; while the leaves of evergreen cuttings con- 

 tinue to perform their function, and thus send down fresh supplies of 

 organizable matter for the formation of new roots. In most species 

 this organizable matter is first developed as a swelling or callosity 

 between the bark and the wood, or over the whole base of the cutting. 

 When this is fairly formed, roots are certain to follow. While possibly 



