PRACTICAL PLANT PROPAGATION 



such dependence can be placed on the growing of stock from seeds. 

 Favorable stem, leaf and flower characters are perpetuated exactly 

 as in the parent plant. Some plants, too, produce no seed; these 

 must be propagated by some other means, such as cuttings. 



THE WOOD TO USE 



A stem from which soft wood cuttings are to be made should be 

 brittle, not stringy; when bent it should snap, not bend. (See fig. 

 15.) If too full of sap the cuttings damp-off readily ; if too old, they 

 are slow to root. The best material is the first one to three inches 

 of the tip of a shoot. Two or more eyes should be found on each 

 slip. The cut should preferably be made through an eye at the 

 base, although many plants will root from cuttings made at other 

 points than an eye or node. A Clematis cutting, for instance, will 

 root better when cut at an internode. The growth activity is con- 

 sidered to be greater at the nodes and rooting at those points should 

 ordinarily be more sure. The cutting will have no roots with which 

 to supply food and water to the leaves, so that most of the latter 

 should be removed or much shortened. It will be the food stored 

 in the stem and remaining leaves which will produce the new roots. 



B 



Fig. 16. A Chrysanthemum cutting. This is untrimmed as cut from the plant 

 B Chrysanthemum cutting. The two lower leaves are removed to reduce the loss of 

 moisture from the cutting. Note that the cut at the base of the cutting is through an 

 eye, or node; it is, therefore, called a node cutting (See page 145) 



