70 Propagation and Training of Plants. 



side shoots by a joint, cutting off the lower pair of 

 leaves, and inserting the slips up to the first joint. In 

 taking cuttings it is a rule either to slip them off at a 

 joint with the joint or heal on, or, taking a part of a 

 branch or shoot and cutting it clean across below an 

 eye or bud. The reason for this is that a cutting roots 

 far quicker and surer at a joint, or beneath an eye, than 

 it would do at any other part of the stem. The sap or 

 life-blood of a plant rises between the bark and the 

 wood. When a cutting is taken off, the sore part of 

 the wound inflicted must of course be where the flow 

 of the life current has been stopped ; so it is naturally 

 there where it heals up first and the root appears. A 

 cutting, when it shows signs of rooting, calices or heals 

 up round the inside of the bark, much in the same way 

 as you will see a tree heal over where a branch has 

 been cut off. Directly after calicing has taken place 

 the little rootlets make their appearance as little round 

 knobs, which soon lengthen out searching for food 

 to sustain the returning energies of the cutting, 

 which is now entitled to the dignified name of a 

 plant. 



Cinerarias, musk plants, forget-me-nots, primroses, 

 and other plants that throw out leaves or shoots direct 

 from the crown of the root, can be easily propagated by 

 division; that is, cutting them up into parts and potting 

 the parts separately. Mosses or selaginellas are propa- 

 gated by inserting several ends or pieces over the surface 

 of the pot or pan that you intend for a specimen plant. 

 Ferns in most varieties are propagated by division, those 

 with creeping stems or rhizomes bysimply cutting off a 



