PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS 37 



and if the room is warm and dry, arrange to confine the air 

 in the box by a covering of glass. 



The commonest cuttings of house plants are stem cuttings. 

 One of the simplest illustrations of such cuttings is to be 

 found in slips of the common geranium. A vigorous branch 

 is cut off or broken off at a place where it will snap easily — 

 for roots start best from young, growing portions — and is then 

 trimmed off just below a node or the place where a leaf 

 comes out. Only two or three leaves should be left on the 

 slip, that no more water may evaporate than the plant can 

 supply without roots. The slip is now ready to plant, and 

 should be inserted into the sand of the propagating box to a 

 distance of about two inches. 



In a few weeks a special hardened tissue called the callus will 

 have formed over the cut end of the stem, and a little later roots 

 will appear through or near the callus. As soon as these roots 

 are started the new plant may be potted in a small pot, where 

 more roots will continue to develop as the plant grows. 



The geranium is an illustration of what is called a soft- 

 wood cutting. One can also grow hard-wood cuttings in 

 a very similar way. Early in spring cut from a thrifty 

 young willow a piece of twig about six inches long and insert 

 it in sand in the same way that the geranium was inserted. 

 In two or three weeks roots will have started, and the cutting 

 may be planted in a three-inch pot, and later planted out- 

 doors where it can continue to grow. Hard-wood cuttings 

 are sometimes induced to root by burying them in the soil or 

 sand for several weeks, then bringing them to the surface that 

 the buds may develop. The story of " Mary's Garden and 

 How it Grew" gives an interesting account of reproducing 

 the California Privet for a hedge in this way. 



