10 



until it can sustain itself. Leaves alone in some instances, will 

 strike root, and form plants. 



Cuttings which are difficult to strike may be rendered more 

 tractable by previous ringing. If a ring be made on the shoot 

 which is to furnish the cutting, a callus will be created, which, 

 if inserted in the ground after the cutting is taken off, will 

 freely emit roots, A ligature would perhaps answer the same 

 purpose. The amputation, in case of the ring or ligature, must 

 be made below the circles, and the cutting must be so planted 

 as to have the callus covered with earth. 



[Collodion useful for striking Cuttings. Many cuttings fail 

 from damping off at the base, using collodion is said to save 

 them. Major Trevor Clarke, a great authority, on the Com- 

 mittee of the Royal Horticultural Society, London, gives the 

 following recipe. Allow the cuttings time to dry off visible 

 moisture from the cut, then dip the ends, in a minute or so dip 

 again, and in five minutes plant them. 



Procure the collodion from a good Photographic Chemist 

 and state in your order that it must be capable of giving a 

 strong horny film, with only sufficient Alcohol to ensure solu- 

 tion, and to be twice as strong in cotton as that used for photo- 

 graphic purposes. 



Striking Cuttings. All soft wooded and delicate plant cut- 

 tings should be struck in sand under a hand glass, not over- 

 watered, the soil kept just moist, if the cuttings are kept in the 

 open, the glass should be covered in the day with matting 

 during bright sunshine, generally a place under a big tree is 

 selected for striking cuttings. It should be well raised so that 

 no over- wet state of the soil is created, from too much moisture 

 cuttings are liable to damp off when they have rooted the hand 

 glass is removed except in heavy rain. ED.] 



The insertion of Cuttings may seem an easy matter, and none 

 but a practical cultivator would imagine that there could be any 

 difference in the growth between cuttings inserted in the middle 

 of a pot and those inserted at its sides. Yet such is actually the 

 case, and some sorts of trees if inserted in a mere mass of earth, 



