288 RATIONALE OF STEIEIN9 CtTTTINGS. 



emitted foots so abundantly, that I do not think one cutting in 

 a hundred would fail with proper attention. Some of the pots 

 were placed round the edges of a Melon bed, which affords a 

 very eligible situation where a few plants only are wanted." 

 (Horticultural Transactions, ii. 117.) In this case success 

 appears to have depended upon the following circumstances : — 



1. The cuttings were prepared in November, at the end of 

 the season of growth, when all the orgahizable matter required 

 for the cutting was formed, and locked up in the proper places 

 in its interior. It was not necessary, therefore, to take any 

 means of insuring a further supply of aliment. But had it been 

 otherwise, that is to say, if the cuttings had been prepared in 

 the summer, in the midst of their growth, it would have been 

 indispensable to allow a leaf or two to remain attached to the 

 upper end of the cutting, to assist in the forination of alimentary 

 matter. 



3. Although but one , eye was allowed to grow, yet the 

 cuttings themselves were four or five inches long, and they 

 consisted, to the extent of two-thirds, of two-years-old wood. 

 By this means the quantity of food for the nascent branch was 

 intended to be so great as to insure it against suffering from an 

 inadequate supply, until it had formed roots. The importance 

 of this has already been shown by Mr. Knight in a previous 

 part of this book. 



3. The cuttings were taken off in November, and not in the 

 spring. This gave them time to form granulations of cellular 

 substance at the lower or wounded end before the powers of 

 absorption by the alburnum were aroused, and so to protect 

 themselves against a too copious supply of aqueous matter 

 before the growing bud could dispose of it by its leaves. This 

 protection is afforded by the thinnest stratum of new cellular 

 tissue, which covers the ends of the wounded vessels, and acts 

 as a vital filter through which all the crude food must pass 

 from the soil. 



4. The lower end of the cuttings was so divided as to b6 

 parallel with the bottom of the pot, and it appears from the 

 context, although it is not expressly so stated, that this end was 

 to touch the bottom of the pot. The importance of this pre- 



