420 



broad ribbons 



CUT -FLOWERS 



16 carried in the hand or over the 

 Tiin^tlv lived are roses and lilies-of- 

 ' '*. f I III little in the various cities, 

 III ill III.- lirst-class work. There 

 I . Ill "1- \M stern flower. With the 

 .ii -"1111- varieties of carnations, the 

 rs will be found the same the country 

 over. In the census of 1890 Cut-flowers were estimated 

 to make more than one-half of the florist's business. 

 One good book especially devoted to the business has 

 been produced,— the late M. A. Hunt's "How to Grow 

 Cut-flowers." Robert Kift. 



CUTICLE. The outer surface of herbaceous parts of 

 plants. It consists of the outer walls of the epidermal 

 cells. These walls are much thickened and cutinized. 

 Minute waxy rods upon the cuticularized surface of 

 many fruits, such as the grape and plum, give to them 

 their peculiar bloom. The Cuticle is nearly impervious 

 to water. The preservation of fruits depends in large 

 measure upon the retention of moisture by the Cuticle. 

 Cacti and other desert plants have their epidermis re- 

 markably cuticularized. ■^_ yy_ Rowlee. 



CUTTAGE. The operation and practice of growing 

 plants from severed parts. A cutting is the gardener's 

 name for a piece of the stem, root, rootstock or leaf, 

 which, if cut off and planted under suitable conditions, 

 will form new roots and buds, reproducing the parent 

 plant. This term is usually given to parts of the 

 stem; a part or the whole of the leaf, when so used, is 

 called a leaf -cutting; a piece of root or rootstock is called 

 a root-cutting. The scales of some bulbous plants, e. g., 

 the lily, can also be used as cuttings. A cion used in 

 .grafting might be called a cutting which unites and 

 grows on the roots of another plant. See Graftage. 

 Plants obtained by division or layering are provided 

 with roots before they are detached from the parent 

 plants, and, therefore, are not properly cuttings. 



Multiplication by cuttings is a form of bud -propagation 

 in contradistinction to sexual reproduction, i. e., propa- 

 gation by seeds. It is acheap and convenient way to obtain 

 plants. All plants cannot be profitably increased by these 

 means. Why they differ we do not know; the gardener 

 learns by experience what species yield a good per- 

 centage of healthy plants, and acts accordingly. 



The following table will show the different ways in 

 which cuttings are made: 



[■ Soft 

 Growing J e.g., Verbena 

 wood.. I ■□„„,„„„,, 



(1) Cuttings of Growing Wood. — ¥ig. 618. These are 

 made either of the soft growing tips, as in coleus, salvia, 

 verbena, etc., or, of the same wood in more mature con- 

 dition, but by no means ripe, as in tender roses. Azalea 

 Indica, etc. The cuttings of plants like Euphorbia 

 pulcherrima, erica, epacris, etc., are used in the soft 

 growing state, if- a well built propagating house is obtain- 

 able; but in an ordinary house, a part of which is used 

 for other purposes. Ilic oMir and liittcr ripened wood 

 will be more suci-.-sfui. It i^ u.im rally true that cut- 

 tings of hardem-.l w.ii.il V. ill al\va>v niut, although they 

 require more tinie and uuij- not luiLke the best plants. 



always root. In mi 

 before they callus, 

 of rapid growth ani 

 of the soft growing 



that cuttings of the soft wood will 



in the right s 



lardened wood 

 long as it con- 



The treatment of cuttings in both 

 classes is practically the same. 

 They should be planted in sand un- 

 der glass. Large establishments 

 have one or more houses sot apart 



IColeus.) wlu-re they k-iivc the boiler, and, in 



order to secure bottom heat when 

 needed, the space between the bench and the floor 

 should be boarded up, having a trap door to open on 

 cold nights (Pig. 619). Cutting-frames inside a green- 

 house are also shown in Fig. 620. Side p.artitioiis 

 should also be provided to box in all the heat from the 

 pipes under that part of the bench. Good dimeu- 

 ■iHili ''. ff.'t, length 6 feet or 

 I" 1 1 M tuple to use a hotbed 

 The depth of the 

 - iti front and from 12 



for such 

 any multiple of 6, t 

 sash when confine 

 frame should be fn 

 to 15 inches behimi. TIm i...ii.,i,i df the bed may be 

 either wood, slate or metal and should be well drained: 

 place a layer of potsherds first, then moss, and from 2 to 

 3 inches of sand on top. The sand should be clean, 

 sharp and well compacted : before planting it should be 

 watered if at all dry. It is sometimes advisable to 

 have the bed filled with moss (sphagnum), into which 

 pots or boxes containing cuttings are plunged ; the 

 moss should be moist, neither too wet nor dry, and well 

 packed. 



In many cases, when large quantities of one sort of 

 cuttings are to be planted, the ordinary greenhousa 



bench covered with sand is sufficient (Fig. 621). Other 



forms of propagating beds are shown in Pigs. 622, 623, 



624. See, also, Bailey's Nursery Book, 3d ed., pp. i4-53. 



The wood for cuttings should be fresh, and precau- 



