80 OPEKATIONS OF GARDENING. PART I. 



mechanical one of supporting the cuttings. Having tried this 

 method during the Cold season, and found it in many instances 

 completely successful, I subjoin a few remarks by Miss Maling 

 on the subject, only first observing that for cuttings of plants 

 which take a long time in striking, the sand must be absolutely 

 clean and pure ; otherwise it will turn green and sour, and the 

 cuttings rot in consequence : 



" Heliotropes, Verbenas, Lobelias, and Begonias do most beauti- 

 fully, as do any of the very young soft shoots, when planted in pans 

 of silver-sand, soaked and overflowed with a little sheet of water. 

 Many hard- wooded plants, even hard to strike by other means, will 

 grow in this way well. 



" The shoots taken off as short as possible, and as fresh, and 

 having only the lowest leaves snipped off, if necessary, near the 

 stalk (not close to it) may be stuck in all over, and if put in a warm 

 and sheltered place, as over a greenhouse-stove, will grow most 

 rapidly, and make the most charming bunches of little fibry roots. 

 These things will often strike even in small bottles of rain-water, 

 the convenience of which is that they take up so little room. 

 Previously to drawing out the little plants, it is well to soak the 

 sand thoroughly, to avoid tearing the rootlets. The cuttings raised 

 in sand must, as a rule, have their roots filled in with sand when 

 they are first removed." * 



PROPAGATION BY EYES. 



Many plants may be propagated very readily by eyes or buds. 

 I have mentioned elsewhere that this method has been 

 adopted with great success with the Grape-vine at Lahore, and 

 there is no reason to doubt that it would prove equally 

 successful with many other plants in India. The method is 

 simply to take a plump shoot of the season, on which the leaves 

 are healthy and the buds not yet started. About half an inch 

 or less above and below a bud, cut the shoot si oping wise into 

 the wood, so that the cut each way may meet just about a 

 quarter of an inch behind the bud. The piece of the shoot, with 

 the bud upon it just as it is, is planted firmly in a pan of sand, 

 with the point of the bud just visible above the surface. It is 

 essential that the bud have a leaf attached to it, which should 

 not be taken off. The sand is kept moistened and the pan 



* ' The Indoor Gardener,' pp. 117,121. 



