CUTTINGS. 



140 



CUTTINGS. 



dark by being well covered with matting 

 during frost. 



Cuttings, Best Medium for 

 Striking. 



Silver sand is perhaps the best medium 

 in which to strike small cuttings. A light 

 free soil, through which the air can pass 

 freely, is essential to the well-being of all 

 cuttings. That aeration is necessary is 

 proved by the fact that cuttings will strike 

 readily in cocoanut fibre, a material which 

 is extremely pervious to air, and retains 

 moisture for a considerable period. Pow- 

 dered charcoal also forms a good medium. 

 Perhaps the free access of air through the 

 drainage is the reason why cuttings root 

 more freely when placed close to the side 

 of the pot. 



Cuttings, Management of. 



Cuttings of hard wooded plants, such as 

 the heath, myrtle, &c., are more difficult to 

 strike tharr those of soft wooded plants, 

 such as the geranium, &c. Free-growing 

 hardy plants, such as the gooseberry and 

 willow, strike freely without care or atten- 

 tion after inserting the cuttings in the soil. 

 The side shoots of plants, low down in the 

 stem, are the best for cuttings, and should 

 be taken when the sap is in full motion, 

 because its return by the bark tends to 

 form the callus, or ring, of granular matter 

 between the wood and the bark from which 

 the roots proceed. Cuttings should be 

 taken of wood which has ripened, or which 

 is beginning to ripen, because in wood 

 which is attaining or has attained matura- 

 tion, the callus so necessary to root forma- 

 tion is more readily induced to show itself. 

 Never cut off the leaves of a cutting except 

 so far as may be necessary at its base in 

 order to insert it in the soil. Formerly it 

 was the fashion to top the cuttings, or 

 pipings, as they are technically called, of 

 pinks and carnations in a manner similar to 



that of docking a horse's tail, but this un- 

 reasonable mutilation both of leaves or tail 

 has now gone out of date. The leaves are 

 the lungs of plants, and if they be cut the 

 sap that they contain will be lost to the 

 cutting, and prevented from passing down- 

 wards to form the callus. Cuttings of 

 plants that are difficult to strike may fre- 

 quently be induced to do so by making a 

 ring round them, or tying a piece of string 

 round them for a short time before they are 

 taken from the parent plant. The down- 

 ward flow of the sap is arrested by the cut- 

 ring or tightened ligature, and a swelling is 

 caused, which forms a callus, from which 

 roots are soon emitted. The cutting must 

 be severed from the parent plant just below 

 the ring or band, and the callus must be 

 covered with soil. 



Cuttings strike more readily when placed 

 at the side of a pot, touching the pot, than 

 when placed in its centre and surrounded 

 with soil. Some kinds of cuttings will 

 strike more freely when the lower end is 

 placed in contact with gravel or crock 

 drainage placed at the bottom of the pot. 

 Cuttings of the mulberry and orange may 

 thus be struck with comparative ease. It 

 has been said that the great art in striking 

 cuttings of the orange is to place them to 

 touch the bottom of the pot ; they are then 

 to be plunged in a bed or hotbed, and to 

 be kept moist. Different kinds of cuttings 

 require different management, and no 

 " hard and fast" rule can be laid down for 

 all. No cutting should be set too deeply, 

 but, as in the case of seeds, the depth will 

 depend mainly on the size of the cutting. 

 No leaves should be permitted to touch the 

 soil ; if they do they will damp off, or, in 

 other words, perish by rotting and fall off. 

 Plants with hollow stems, as the honey- 

 suckle, should have both ends of the 

 cutting inserted in the soil ; if both ends 

 root, the plant can be easily divided, and 

 will then form two. Loudon tells us that 



