CHAP. Ml. CUTTINGS. 75 



procurable. In the sand the cuttings are inserted, well watered, 

 pressed down, covered with bell-glasses, and shaded with a roof 

 of matting, fixed about two feet above them. " The glasses," 

 Mr. Ross says, "are not to be taken off more than once or 

 twice weekly to give water, and keep the cuttings clean of any 

 decayed leaves." 



An improvement upon this plan now in use in the Calcutta 

 Botanical Gardens, and in the gardens of the Agri-Horticultural 

 Society, is to fill small pots with sand, place the cuttings close 

 around the inside of them, sink the pots to the rim in the bed 

 of sand, and cover them with bell-glasses. When the cuttings 

 are struck the pots may be taken out, and other pots with fresh 

 cuttings fitted into their places. In this way, when the cuttings 

 are removed, the bed of sand is not disturbed, as it would be 

 were pots not employed. Moreover, it is maintained, cuttings 

 strike far more readily by being laid in contact with the sides 

 of the pots. 



Of course the same end may be obtained by more simple 

 means than the above ; for except in point of convenience, the 

 result will be the same if the pots of sand, with the cuttings in 

 them, be sunk in the earth in any suitable spot in the garden, 

 and there covered with bell-glasses and shaded. 



One of the simplest modifications of the above plan is to 

 fill a flower-pot half-full of sand ; insert cuttings of length suffi- 

 cient to reach, within a little, the rim of the pot ; sink the 

 pot in the earth, and cover with a pane of glass. Each morn- 

 ing the under side of the glass will be covered with condensed 

 moisture ; all that is required is to turn it upside down. Sir 

 J. Paxton states, " Mr. Mearns first recommended this, and 

 found it answer so well that he greatly prefers it to any other 

 covering." * 



The sinking of the pots to the rim I consider of great im- 

 portance ; as one point essential to success in striking cuttings 

 is that the soil in which they are inserted should, if anything, 

 be of a somewhat higher temperature than the surrounding 

 atmosphere. Whereas if the pots be left above ground, the 

 evaporation that takes place through their porous sides must 

 necessarily much reduce the temperature of the soil within 

 them, and so be very prejudicial to the cuttings. 



* ' Magazine of Botany,' vol. i. p. 159. 



