FORMATION OF ROOTS ON CUTTINGS. 55 



bed, and it should be well mixed with the soil. In most 

 cases, a well-drained soil gives best results, but some cut- 

 tings root and grow well in wet soils, or even in standing 

 water, as poplars, willows, some of the dogwoods, plane- 

 tree, and others. 



The Formation of Roots. As a rule, roots arise most 

 readily from a joint, and it is, therefore, a common 

 practice to cut off the base of the cutting just be- 

 low a bud, as shown in the grape cutting, Fig. 59. 

 Sometimes the cutting is severed at its point of 

 attachment to the parent branch, and a small por- 

 tion, or "heel," of that branch is allowed to re- 

 main on the cutting. This heel may be nothing 

 more than the curved and hardened base of the 

 cutting at its point of attachment, as in the cornus 

 cutting, Fig. 60. Sometimes an entire section of 

 the parent branch is remo ved with the cutting, as 

 in the "mallet" cuttings of grapes, Fig. 61. Of 

 course, comparatively few heel or mallet cuttings 

 can be made from a plant, as only one cutting is 

 obtained from a branch, and it is advisable, there- 

 fore, to ' ' cut to buds ' ' rather than to ' ' cut to 

 heels;" yet there are many plants which demand 

 a heel, if the most satisfactory results are to be 

 obtained. The requirements of the different spe- 

 cies in this regard can be learned only by expe- 

 rience , but it may be said that in general the 

 hardest or closest wooded plants require a heel 

 or a joint at the base. Willows, currants, bass- 5<? Grape 

 woods, and others with like soft wood, emit roots cutting(x l / 2 } 

 readily between the buds, yet even in these cases propa- 

 gators generally cut to buds. 



Wounds upon plants begin to heal by the formation of 

 loose, cellular matter which gives rise to a mass of tissue 

 known as a callus. This tissue eventually covers the entire 

 wound, if complete healing results. As a rule, the first 

 apoarent change in a cutting is the formation of a callus 



