230 PROP A OA TION B Y LEA VES. 



appeared to me then, and it was confirmed by subsequent experience, 

 that in order to obtain a satisfactory result the leaf must be taken off 

 while the plant is advancing in its growth. I found it easy thus to 

 multiply some bulbs that did not willingly produce offsets. I after- 

 wards tried, without cutting the leaf off, to make an oblique incision 

 in it under ground, and in some cases just above ground, attempting, 

 in fact, to raise bulbs by layering the leaf. This attempt was also 

 successful, and some young bulbs were formed on the edge of the cut 

 above ground as well as below. I tried cuttings of the stems of some 

 species of Lilium, and obtained bulbs at the axil of the leaf, as well as 

 from the scales of the bulb ; and that practice has been since much 

 resorted to by gardeners, though I believe it originated with me. I 

 raised a great number of the bulbs of the little plant which has been 

 successively called massonia, scilla, and hyacinthus corymbosus, by 

 setting a pot full of its leaves, and placing a bell-glass over them for a 

 short time. A bulb was obtained with equal facility from a leaf of a 

 rare species of Eucomis ; and experiments with the leaves of Lache- 

 nalias were equally successful. I apprehend that all liliaceous bulbs 

 may be thus propagated ; but the more fleshy the leaf, the more easily 

 the object will be attained." (< Gard. Chron.' for 1841, p. 381.) 



Rooting Leaves and Parts of Leaves in Powdered Charcoal. Most 

 cuttings will root as freely, and even more so, in this than in sand. 

 Mr. Jas. Barnes, late of Bicton, used to mix charcoal with the soil in 

 which he grew every kind of plant, from the cabbage and the onion to 

 heaths, pine-apples, and orchideae, and with extraordinary success. 

 The charcoal was generally broken into small pieces, say an inch or 

 more in length, and seldom thicker than a quill ; but he also used it 

 of a larger size, along with drainage materials, and, when sown along 

 with seeds, in a state of powder. 



Leaves with the buds in the axils root freely in the case of many 

 species. The buds and leaves are cut out with a small portion of the 

 bark and alburnum to each, and planted in sandy loam, so deep as 

 just to cover the bud ; the soil being pressed firmly against it, and the 

 back of the leaf resting on the surface of the soil. Covered with a 

 bell-glass and placed on heat, in a short time the buds break through 

 the surface of the soil, and elongate into shoots. The late Mr. Knight 

 tried this mode with double camellias, magnolias, metrosideros, acacias, 

 neriums, rhododendrons, and many others, some of which rooted and 

 made shoots the same season, and others not till the following spring. 



Immature fruits have even been made to produce plants. M. Thouin 

 planted fruits of the Opuntia Tuna, which were about three-fourths 

 ripe, with their peduncles entire, in pots of sand almost dry, and 

 covered them with a bell-glass, placing the pot on a hotbed. In 

 eighteen days, callosities appeared at the base of the peduncles, which 

 soon became roots, and a few days afterwards little protuberances 

 appeared on the summits of the fruit, which, at the end of two months, 

 became shoots. The same result took place in the case of the fruits of 

 Opuntia polyanthos, and Mammillaria simplex. (' Cours de Culture,' 

 &c., tome ii. p. 551.) Some or the whole of the parts of the flower 



