208 PEEMANENT nuesehies. 



paratively small number of species are able to grow from cuttings. 



A cutting strikes and becomes established sooner than ti-ans- 

 planted seedlings. Hence, except for propagating rare species or 

 varieties, there is seldom, if ever, any necessity for putting cut- 

 tings through a course of nursery training ; and it is very much 

 better to put them out at once where they are required. Hence 

 cuttings will find their place only very exceptionally in a forest 

 nurseryj Nevertheless a short description of how to propagate by 

 means of them cannot be omitted from a Manual which profesies 

 to give general principles. 



Cuttings for forest purposes may be either sections of the shoots 

 of some broad-leaved species, or entire culms or sections of culms 

 of the various species of bamboos. 



A. Cuttings of broad-leaved species. 



The roots which cuttings develop are all adventitious roots, 

 originating some on the callus formed along the edge of the buried 

 section by the still active cambium, but the majority from under 

 the lenticels. The formation of a large callus may be secured 

 even before the cutting is severed, by remoAang a ring of bark or 

 tying a ligature at the point at which it is eventually to be cut off ; 

 the elaborated sap being for the most part arrested in its descent 

 by the barkless girdle or ligature, as the case may be, a swelHng 

 is produced immediately above consisting of young and, therefore, 

 still active woody and cortical tissue. Until roots are produced, 

 cuttings can absorb moisture from the soil only through their 

 buried lower section, which should therefore have as large an area 

 as practicable and be in the best condition possible to let water 

 enter easily. Hence it ought to be cut obliquely and as clean as 

 possible with a sharp knife. The upper extremity of the cutting is 

 best cut straight across to reduce the surface of evaporation, and, 

 in order to create a further obstacle to evaporation it should be 

 covered over with clay or, better still, with a mixture of clay and 

 cowdung. 



Cuttings shoiild be put down obliquely, so that no part of their 

 burled length may be so far away below the surface of the soil as 

 to be unable to receive the full amount of aeration requisite for 

 producing a vigorous development of roots. 



The best time for putting the cuttings into the ground is just 

 before the re-awakening of vegetative activity, when the wood and 

 the bark are still full of reserve material. The larger the amount 

 of this reserve material is, the more abundant and vigorous will be 

 the proJuction of aaventitious roots. 



