HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS. 



PRO 



It is best to pot off the cuttings at 

 once when rooted, no matter how small 

 the roots may be; half an inch is a much 

 better length for them to be when potted 

 than two inches, and the operation is 

 much quicker performed when the roots 

 are short than when long. But the main 

 evils of delaying the potting off of cut- 

 tings are, that when left too long the cut- 

 tings grow up weak and spindling, the 

 roots become hard, and do not take as 

 quickly to the pot. The same care is re- 

 quired in shading and watering after 

 potting, nearly, as in the cutting bench; 

 for no matter how carefully taken 

 up, in the operation of potting the 

 delicate roots get less or more injured, 

 and until they begin to emit roots are 

 nearly as liable to wilt as the unrooted 

 cuttings. Cuttings should always be 

 placed in small pots, the best size being 

 from two to two and a half inches wide 

 and deep; if placed in larger pots the 

 soil dries out too slowly, and the tender 

 root, imbedded too long in a mass of wet 

 soil, rots and the plant dies. Though 

 we generally prefer soil to be unsifted in 

 potting large plants, yet for newly potted 

 cuttings it is better to be sifted fine, not 

 only that it is more congenial thus to the 

 young roots, but also that the operation 

 is quicker done with finely-sifted soil. 

 After potting, the cuttings are placed on 

 benches covered with an inch or so of 

 sand, watered freely with a fine Kose 

 watering pot, and shaded for four or five 

 days; by that time they will have begun 

 to root, when no further shading is ne- 

 cessary. These methods of propagating 

 by cuttings are such as are now practiced 

 by commercial florists, but for amateurs 

 in horticulture, or gardeners who have 

 charge of private green-houses, there is j 



PRO 



usually no necessity for a regular propa- 

 gating house, unless the requirements for 

 plants are unusually large, as the 



" Saucer System " of Propagation will 

 answer every purpose, and it is the safest 

 of all methods in inexperienced hands, 

 We were, we believe, the first to intro- 

 duce this system some twenty years ago, 

 and here repeat the directions first given 

 in one of the horticultural journals at 

 that time. " Common saucers or plates 

 are used to hold the sand in which the 

 cuttings are placed. This sand is put in 

 to the depth of an inch or so, and the 

 cuttings inserted in it close enough to 

 touch each other. The sand is then wa- 

 tered until it becomes in the condition of 

 mud, and placed on the shelf of the 

 green-house, or on the window-sill of the 

 sitting-room or parlor, fully exposed to 

 the sun, and never shaded. But one con- 

 dition is essential to success: until the 

 cuttings become rooted the sand must be 

 kept continually saturated, and kept in the 

 condition of mud; if once allowed to dry 

 up, exposed to the sun as they are, the 

 cuttings will quickly wilt, and the whole 

 operation will be defeated. The rules 

 previously laid down for the proper con- 

 dition of the cuttings are the same in this 

 case, and those for the temperature near- 

 ly so; although, by the saucer system, a 

 higher temperature can be maintained 

 without injury, as the cuttings are in re- 

 ality placed in water, and will not droop 

 at the same temperature as if the sand 

 was kept in the regular condition of moist- 

 ure maintained in the propagating bench. 

 Still, the detached slip, until rooted, will 

 not endure a continuation of excessive 

 heat, so that we advise, as we do in the 

 regular method of propagating, that the 

 attempt should not be made to root cut- 



