PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 47 



process and the development of its attendant rootlets. Long 

 shoots or branches so treated produce several individuals, 

 according to the number of nodes or joints, and when rooted 

 are separated and treated as separate plants, or for stocks if 

 requisite. 



PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS.* 



This is a very popular and in general expeditious mode of 

 propagation, and, like division and layering, exactly repro- 

 duces the parent plant from which the cuttings are taken ; 

 hence these modes of propagation are often preferable to either 

 grafting or seed, especially soft-wooded subjects, and cuttings de- 

 velop themselves much quicker as a rule than either grafted or 

 seedling plants. Nearly all " soft-wooded " plants of which 

 Fuchsias, Lobelias, and Pelargoniums are examples are best 

 propagated from cuttings of the stem. Many thick-leaved 

 Begonias, Gloxinias, and Melastomaceous plants are readily 

 multiplied by leaf-cuttings, the fully-developed leaf being 

 inserted in a cutting-pot as a cutting. Some Begonias as 

 B. Rex, B. grandis, and the newer kinds and strong-growing 

 Melastomads, are readily propagated in this manner if the 

 leaves are divided into pieces an inch or so square. Hoyas, 

 Fuchsias, Gesneras, and even bulbous plants (as Amaryllis) 

 may be reproduced in this way. In cases where cuttings can- 

 not be obtained from the leafy portions of the plant as in 

 Drosera (binatd) dichotoma, Dionaa muscipula, Sarracenias, 

 and Darlingtonia cuttings may be made by dividing the 

 underground stems, or rhizomes, and planting the cuttings so 

 obtained in pans placed close under the glass of the propa- 

 gating pit. Cuttings of the root succeed in a vast number of 

 plants ; and it is often necessary that the cultivator should 

 avail himself of every portion of the plant, at a time when 

 speed in reproduction is synonymous with commercial success. 

 It is only in rare instances that new or rare plants can be kept 

 for years in the propagating pit, since time is money; for if one 

 firm does not supply a new plant quickly, the chances are 

 another will, so keen is modern competition in trade. Cut- 

 tings of the bulb are often resorted to, especially in the case of 

 new Hyacinths and other bulbous flowers, the cut portions of 

 which emit little bulbils, which are afterwards grown on up to 



the 



entitl 



lation of this was subsequently published in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' 



1845, vol. iv. pp. 116, 132, 149, 185, 208, 225, 240, 272, 384, 472, &c. 



