PKOPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



und, further, the latter is too old to root well, and often 

 rots, injuring the whole plant. To prevent this accident 

 the piece of two-year-old wood is removed, preserving only 

 the swelling formed by the ring of latent buds (Fig. 32), 



Fig. 30. 



Fig. 81. 



Fig. 32. 



Fig. 33. 



Figs. 30 and 31. Mallet Cuttings. Fig. 32. Cutting with two years old wood 

 removed. Fig. 33. Ordinary Cutting. 



Unfortunately, the scarcity of certain American varieties 

 and the necessity of utilizing all the wood from the base to 

 the extremity does not allow the use of this method, and 

 generally we have to be content with cuttings taken from any 

 part of the shoot. The latter, which are easy to procure, 

 give satisfactory results in most cases. 



(B.) Lenyih of Cuttings. As a principle, when the future 

 development and good constitution of the plant alone are 

 taken into consideration, the shortest cuttings are best. 

 Cuttings with a single bud, for instance (Fig. 34), give a 

 bundle of very powerful roots in the prolongation of the 

 stem, and produce plants of remarkable vigour (Fig. 35). 

 Very long cuttings, on the contrary (Fig. 36B), grow a large 

 number of tufts of roots at each node. 

 They do not make very large individual 

 development, and, as shown in the 

 figure, diminish in length towards the 

 base, which is incapable of growing 

 roots with any vitality, and often rots 

 and dies away. But the question is not 

 as simple as it appears at first. The necessity of placing 

 the cutting in a sufficiently damp surrounding to insure its 



