78 



OPERATIONS OF GARDENING. 



PART I. 



6. The pan being sunk in the ground, no cold is caused by 

 evaporation from its outer side. 



When neither bell-glass nor hand-glass is procurable, the 

 following, as shown in section in Fig. 12, 1 have found a simple 

 and efficacious mode of proceeding. 



Procure a large flower-pot, and lay at the bottom of it large 

 loose pieces of brick just so high that a small flower-pot placed 

 inside upon them may have its rim on the same level as the 

 rim of the large pot. Fill in the interval between the pots 

 with perfectly dry sand or earth. Fill the inner pot with 



pure sand, and insert the 

 cuttings. Take another 

 pot just of the size that, 

 when turned upside down, 

 it inay fit in on the earth 

 between the rim of the 

 large and small pot. 

 Break out its bottom, 

 and lay over it a piece 

 of window-glass. Water 

 the cuttings as they re- 

 quire it with tepid water, 

 allowing none to fall on 

 the earth between the 

 pots. When condensa- 

 tion takes place upon the 

 pane of glass, merely turn it over. 



The object in keeping the earth between the pots dry is, of 

 course, that no evaporation may take place from the outside of 

 the large pot, and the temperature within be thereby reduced. 



Fig. 12. 



THE STRIKING OF CUTTINGS IN WATER. 



This, Dr. Lindley says, is an old practice, and quotes a 

 communication to the * Gardeners' Chronicle/ to show the 

 manner of it : 



" I tie vial-bottles by the necks and hang them in the windows 

 of our small greenhouse, having filled them with clean soft water. 

 I then put in slips of Salvia, Calceolaria, Mimulus, Myrtle, or any- 

 thing I wish to propagate of the same description of plants; in 



