PROPAGATIOX 57 



growth are liable to decay, especially if planted in the open ground. 

 All cuttings succeed better at one season than another, and in many 

 cases the most suitable period can only be found out by experiment. 

 Generally speaking, however, cuttings will strike best at the com- 

 mencement of the active growing season. 



In taking cuttings of plants which are grown for their fruits or 

 Mowers, the upper shoots should be chosen ; thus in the case of 

 Pepper, Cubebs, etc., it is well known that cuttings which are taken 

 from the uppermost shoots are more productive and yield earlier 

 crops than those obtained from the lower shoots. Similarly with 

 flowering plants, cuttings taken from the extremity will flower early 

 and in a comparatively small state. Thus, plants raised by cuttings 

 from the flowering shoots of the climber Camocnsia maxima, which 

 usually takes several years to attain a flowering condition if raised 

 from seed, have been found to blossom at Peradeniya in the 

 nursery- bed when only about 16 inches high. 



Although an open nursery is suitable for propagation by 

 cuttings of most kinds of plants, many of the choicer sorts require 

 to be struck in sand, under glass or other artificial covering. In 

 . glass-houses where artificial heat and moisture are under control, 

 and bell-glasses for covering the cuttings are available, many kinds 

 of plants may be raised by cuttings which would be impossible 

 without these means. The bell-glass is of great advantage in 

 preventing excessive evaporation and maintaining a warm and moist 

 atmosphere around the cuttings. It is well known that cuttings 

 will strike better when placed against a porous substance, as the 

 inside of a flower-pot half full of sandy soil or sand only. This 

 fact has lately been taken advantage of in establishing a low hard- 

 wooded plant, Malpighia cocci f era, as an edging to the drives in 

 Peradeniya Gardens. Edging tiles were first laid along the sides 

 of the drives and paths, and the Malpighia cuttings, being inserted 

 against these, struck root readily and formed an excellent dwarf 

 edging not unlike Boxwood. A simple method of striking small 

 cuttings is as follows : Fill a flower-pot half full of sand and soil ; 

 insert cuttings of a length sufficient to reach, within a little, the rim 

 of the pot ; sink the pot in the earth, and cover with a pane of 

 glass. The glass should be turned each morning so as to dispose 

 of the condensed moisture on the underneath side. Another 

 excellent plan, practised in India, is thus described: "Procure a 

 large flower-pot, and at the bottom of it place 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. 



