CUTTINGS. 



139 



CUTTINGS. 



mixed. These should be applied when 

 the leaves are damp. All fallen leaves 

 should be raked together and burnt. It is 

 a good plan to dress the ground on which 

 the plants grow, both in spring and autumn, 

 with a mixture of soot and lime. 



Cuttings. 



Natural Shoots. Cuttings in general 

 may be considered as of two kinds 

 matured wood and young green shoots. 

 The former, whatever they may be, strike 

 readily, and, comparatively speaking, with 

 very little care. An American plan, which 

 is very successful, is to lay them in slightly 

 damped moss, or to drop them lightly into 

 a wide-mouthed bottle, having a piece of 

 damp sponge at the bottom and a covering 

 of muslin over the top. In either of these 

 methods a callus is soon formed, and the 

 cuttings readily throw out roots. 



Immature Shoots. Cuttings of young 

 green shoots, however, require a very differ- 

 ent treatment : they must be so managed 

 as never to be allowed to flag, and the 

 following appears to be the best method 

 that can be pursued. Put silver-sand about 

 an inch deep into shallow pans (common 

 saucers answer every purpose), and in these 

 plant the cuttings. Then pour carefully 

 upon the sand enough water to make a 

 thin sheet about it. The lower leaves of 

 the cuttings are to be removed before plant- 

 ing, and the stalk fixed firmly into the sand 

 before the water is poured on. These 

 tender young green shoots, or cuttings, will 

 be better for a little shade and heat. A 

 piece of thin muslin or tissue-paper will 

 provide the former, and heat may be had 

 by placing the pan of cuttings over a basin 

 of hot water, refilled twice a day. These 

 cuttings will be rooted and ready for pot 

 ting off before the water in which they are 

 grown has dried up. 



When and how to take Cuttings. 

 Cuttings of all sorts of geraniums for bed- 



ding the following year should be struck 

 early : from the last week in July to the 

 end of the first week in August is a very 

 good time. They should be taken in dry 

 weather, when the parent plant has had no 

 water for some days, and they should be 

 kept to dry twenty-four hours after they 

 have been prepared for potting. 



Hastening Formation of Callus. The 

 more succulent sorts, and any that appear 

 difficult to strike, may with advantage be 

 touched at the end with a small paint-brush 

 dipped in collodion, which will serve to 

 hasten the callus which the cutting must 

 form before it will throw out roots. 



Potting. They may be potted four or 

 six in a pot, according to sizes. It is 

 essential that the pots be well fitted with 

 drainers, that the soil be light and sandy, 

 and that it be pressed tight round the joint 

 of the cuttings, which should be buried in 

 it as fleet as possible. When filled, the 

 pots may be sunk in the ground on a south 

 border, and well watered in the evening, 

 when the sun is off. They will require no 

 shading, except the sun be very scorching ; 

 and, in this case, they must not be kept 

 from the light, but merely screened from 

 the scorching rays of the sun. They may 

 flag a little ; but this is of no importance ; 

 in two or three days they will recover, and 

 put forth roots. If they grow too freely 

 before it is time to take them in for the 

 winter, the top shoots should be broken off, 

 and in this way they will make strong bushy 

 plants. 



Protection in Winter. To preserve 

 cuttings from frost where there is no green- 

 house, dig a pit about 4 feet deep, strew 

 the bottom well with ashes, and sink the 

 pots in the same. Over it place a common 

 garden-frame, bank up the outsides with 

 straw and a coating of earth. In such a 

 pit, verbenas, calceolarias, fuschias, &c., 

 &c., may be preserved during the severest 

 winters, provided the pots be kept in the 



