222 



ON PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



Fig. 169. 



of a larger one, the water being left to ooze slowly through the porous 

 sides of the pot, as shown in fig. 169, in which a d is a No. 60 pot, 



with the bottom closed up with clay, put 

 into one of larger size; , the drainage 

 in the larger pot ; c, the sand or soil in 

 which the cuttings are inserted ; and d, 

 the water in the inner pot, which is pre- 

 vented from escaping through the bottom 

 by the clay stopping at a. Mr. Forsyth, 

 the inventor of this mode of striking cut- 

 tings, proposes it to be used with hardy 

 plants, such as pinks and wallflowers, 

 under hand-glasses or frames, in the open 

 air, as well as for all kinds of house- 

 plants. The advantages, he says, are the 

 regularity of the supply of moisture, 

 without any chance of saturation ; the 

 power of examining the state of the cut- 

 tings at any time without injuring them, 



Forsyth' s mode of striking 

 cuttings. 



Fig. 170. 



by lifting out the inner pot ; the superior drainage, so essential in propa- 

 gating, by having such a thin layer of soil ; the roots being placed so 

 near the sides of both pots ; and the facility with which the plants, 

 when rooted, can be parted for potting off, by taking out the inner pot, 



and with a knife cutting 

 out every plant with its 

 ball, without the awk- 

 ward but often necessary 

 process of turning the 

 pot upside down to get 

 out the cuttings. No 

 water but rain - water 

 should ever be used, 

 either for seeds or young 

 cuttings. 



The temperature most 

 suitable for cuttings may 

 reasonably be expected 

 to be that which is most 

 suitable- for the parent 

 plants, when in the same 

 state as to growth as the 

 cuttings, or rather in 

 advance of it. Hence, for 

 all hardy plants the tem- 

 A cutting of Rosa sempcrflorens prepared and planted, perature of the open air 



will generally be found 



sufficient, though when they begin to grow a somewhat higher tem- 

 perature than what is natural to them will be advantageous. This, 

 however, will be of no use, but rather injurious, when cuttings are 



