PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 73 



The time required by cuttings to root varies from 

 eight to twenty days, according to the variety, condition 

 of the cutting, and temperature. Verbenas, Fuchsias, 

 or Heliotropes, put in in proper condition, and kept 

 without ever being allowed to wilt, will root, in an 

 average bottom heat of 65, in eight days, while Roses, 

 Pelargoniums, or Petunias will take at least double that 

 time under the same conditions. 



It is best to pot off the cuttings at once when rooted, 

 no matter how small the roots may be; half an inch is a 

 much better length for them to be when potted than two 

 inches, and the operation is much quicker performed 

 when the roots are short than when long. But the main 

 evils of delaying the potting off of cuttings are, that when 

 left too long the cuttings grow up weak and spindling, 

 the roots become hard, and do not take as quickly to the 

 pot. The same care is required in shading and watering 

 after potting, nearly, as in the cutting bench; for no mat- 

 ter how carefully taken up, in the operation of potting 

 the delicate roots get less or more injured, and until 

 the cuttings begin to emit new roots they are nearly as 

 liable to wilt as the unrooted cuttings. 



Cuttings should always be placed in small pots, the 

 best size being from two to two and a half inches wide 

 and deep; if placed in larger pots the soil dries out too 

 slowly, and the tender root, imbedded too long in a mass 

 of wet soil, rots, and the plant dies. Though we generally 

 prefer soil to be unsifted in potting large plants, yet for 

 newly-potted cuttings it is better to be sifted fine, not 

 only that it is more congenial thus to the young roots, 

 but also that the operation is quicker done with finely- 

 sifted soil. 



After potting, the .cuttings are placed on benches cov- 

 ered with an inch or so of sand,, watered freely with a 



