54 PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



Amherstia-house at Chatsworth these plants are grown to 

 great perfection, and I have seen dozens of cuttings taken off 

 and inserted in the Derbyshire spar used for covering the 

 side benches ; and treated in this manner, some of the cuttings 

 formed great masses of black fibrous roots as large as a child's 

 head.* Common sawdust from the wood of ordinary forest- 

 trees (not Conifers) forms a good rooting medium for many 

 soft-wooded plants, which damp off if placed in soil or sand. 

 Cucumbers, Melons, Ficus, Fuchsias, Gesneras, Tydeas, and 

 many other plants, root well in a bed of sawdust and sandstone. 

 Grit or gravel, coke-dust, or sand, are also useful in the case of 

 succulents which are apt to damp off in ordinary soil. As a 

 rule, however, it is best to strike cuttings in soil similar to that 

 which suits the plant when developed ; for if rooted in water, 

 or other soft, moist substance, extra attention and care are re- 

 quired when such cuttings are potted, as their roots, being 

 much more tender than jvhen produced in soil, are apt to 

 become bruised or broken; and even if they escape this 

 through careful treatment, they are still liable to perish or 

 damp off when placed in a colder and denser compost. The 

 herbaceous flower-stems of some plants, such as Hollyhocks, 

 tall Phloxes, and the double-flowered scarlet Lychnis, may be 

 cut into lengths and treated as recommended for herbaceous 

 cuttings. 



Cuttings of the stem, as in Cycas revoluta and other species, 

 throw out offsets freely ; or the old scales, if taken off carefully 

 and placed in a heated case, throw out young plants, by the 

 development of adventitious buds, in much the same manner 

 as do the scales of Lily, Fritillaria, and other large bulbs. 



Most endogenous stems, as Arundo, Maize, Bamboo and 

 Sugar-Cane, Dracaena, &c., may be propagated from by cutting 

 them into lengths (for the sake of conveniently getting them 

 into the .propagating cases), and laying them on moist soil or 

 soil and moss, in a gentle bottom-heat of 65 to 75. So treated, 

 they, on being excited by the heat and moisture, throw out 

 numerous offsets at the nodes, and these may be taken off and 

 carefully potted when sufficiently developed. + Arundo stems 

 produce these offsets freely if they are cut and thrown into an 

 open-air tank. 



* It is curious what a small proportion of coniferous sawdust makes this 

 medium wprse than useless. This is doubtless owing to the resin which 

 exudes copiously in a warm atmosphere, so much so as to exclude the air, 

 the result being a state of stagnant dampness which causes the cuttings to 

 rot off. 



