192 General Notices. 



milky, hard and dry-wooded species. Cuttings of the greater part of the hardy 

 ornamental plants, suited to the climate of Paris, will strike in the open air, if 

 they are protected from winds and currents of hot air. Others are struck in 

 pots, upon exhausted hotbeds, or in a pit not much raised and ventilated. 

 Finally, cuttings of exotics, able to grow only under the influence of a heat 

 which reminds them of the conditions among which they naturally live, 

 strike root in glasshouses made on purpose, or are placed, agreeably to their 

 nature, either in a hothouse or greenhouse. 



No. II. Soil proper for Cuttings. — Different sorts of trees do not root 

 equally well in all soils. There are some cuttings which can scarcely be 

 made to succeed in saline earth, while others succeed in it very well. The 

 soils considered the best for striking cuttings in the open air, are those which 

 are free, sandy, and soft to the touch ; of Fontenay-aux-Roses, for example, 

 of Clamart, or of Massy. Tamarix elegans and T. germanica prosper in a 

 soil rich in saltpetre ; but the Gingko and Poplars cannot strike in it ; these 

 last succeed at Fontenay-aux-Roses. Cuttings made in glass houses gener- 

 ally require to be planted in earth mixed with peat, in preference to any 

 other, but varied according to the nature of the plant. Whatever compo- 

 sition we use, we must take care not to employ it too dry or too moist : in 

 the first case, the earth not being able to sustain itself in a convenient man- 

 ner around the cutting, the latter falls or is displaced when we wish to water 

 it ; in the second case, the earth being too compact, it hinders the formation 

 of roots. Nature makes vain efforts, and the cutting suffers, decays, and 

 dies, in spite of its disposition to vegetate. 



No. III. Cuttings in the open air. — All our deciduous trees, and many 

 evergreens, may be struck from cuttings in the open air, by the same pro- 

 cess as that employed in the Colonies, if requisite care is taken. Thus, in 

 our Colonies, where there are no glass houses for propagation, nor bell- 

 glasses, I made cuttings entirely m the open air, in a bed shaded with straw : 

 these cuttmgs were watered at random every day, taking no other precau- 

 tion than that of not disturbing their roots. This simple method, the only 

 one, it may be said, in use in our Colonies, is far from offering the difficul- 

 ties which present themselves under the latitude of Paris, to secure the 

 striking of the cuttings of plants foreign to our climate. Here, in order to 

 insure success, we take shoots and branches in full vegetation. In the Col- 

 onies, the gardener always chooses, in preference, the wood which has fin- 

 ished its growth. With us, on the contrary, there are plants whose cut- 

 tings in our glass houses do not root unless they are quite soft, and just be- 

 fore the wood begins to assume its natural color : such are Semecarpus an- 

 acardium, Swietenia mahogani, Euphoria lit-chi, &c. These cuttings 

 cannot bear exposure to the air, even for a moment. They must be planted 

 the moment they are taken off, and covered by a bell-glass. However, this 

 treatment will not succeed with milky, gummy, or resinous plants, such as 

 Vahea gummifera, Araucaria, Euphorbia, &c., whose cuttings, if placed in 

 the earth as soon as they are taken off, seldom root, but almost always rot. 

 Such cuttings secrete from their wounds a peculiar matter, which must be 

 discharged before they are planted. For this purpose, I put them, upside 



