218 



ON PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



and covered with leaves. Pelargoniums, and most soft-wooded plants, 

 strike freest full in the sun, out of doors. The danger to them is from 

 damp, not exhaustion. The temporary fading of the leaves supplies 

 the needed nutrition, and saves them from rottenness ; but short cut- 

 tings make the handsomest plants. When the season is dry and warm, 

 and little time can be spared to attend to keeping them moist, succulent 

 cuttings, such as pinks, are most certain to strike by paring them close 

 below the uppermost joint, and cutting them off above close to the 

 joint, removing all the leaves, except those beginning to develop. 

 Such a cutting is a mere joint in a vital, active, not ripened state, 

 and will stand a great deal of heat; if covered with a hand-glass 

 in sunny weather, or in a hotbed frame in cold weather, they seldom 

 . or never fail. The excitement of heat is all that is wanted. 



In taking off a cutting, regard should be had to the healing of 

 the section left on the plant, and therefore the cut ought to be made 



Fig. 165. 



upwards or outwards, so as to leave a 

 smooth unfractured section that will 

 speedily heal over. The cut on the 

 lower end of the cutting should be 

 made with a very sharp knife, so as 

 not to crush in any degree the vessels 

 of the shoots, and thereby prevent 

 them from cicatrizing and forming a 

 callosity. The cut should not be made 

 through the joint, because the roots 

 seldom proceed from the joint itself, 

 but rather from its base, beneath the 

 point of insertion of the petiole of the 

 leaf. Shoots that have opposite leaves 

 should be taken off by cutting across 

 at a right angle with the direction of 

 the shoot, either immediately under 

 the base of the petiole, or where its 

 combined vessels distinctly reach the 

 stem. Shoots that have alternate 

 leaves should have the knife inserted 

 on the opposite side of the bud, under 

 the node, and the cut should be per- 

 formed in a slanting upward direction 



from the base, or under that of the 

 Prepared cutting of a shaddock. ^^ Qf ^ insertion of the leal ; so 



as to convey away its combined vessels in as perfect a state as possible, 

 which produces the same effect as when a lateral shoot is torn off and 

 then cut clean. This practice is found very successful with many cut- 

 tings, such as those of Camellias, Banksias, and similar plants. The 

 lower ends of stout cuttings of plants somewhat difficult to strike, such 

 as the Orange, are sometimes cut direct across, so as to rest on the 

 bottom of the pot, and sometimes they are in addition split up for an 

 inch or two, and the wound kept open with a wedge. This has been 



