DANDELION. 



97 



ings of glass or mats, or both. A hand-glass placed over a 

 bell-glass will preserve, in a shady situation, a very constant 

 degree of heat. Whatever degree of heat is natural to the 

 mother plant, when in a growing state, will, in general, be 

 most favourable to the growth of cuttings." — Loudon, 



The same writer says, " Every variety of apple may be 

 grown from cuttings ; though some with much greater fa- 

 cility than others. Ail those of the burknot and codling 

 tribes grow as well this way as by any other, and some al- 

 lege, that the trees so raised are not liable to canker, (Hort, 

 Trans, vol. i. p. 120,) which is supposed to be owing to 

 their ' putting out no tap-root, but spreading their nume- 

 rous fibres from the knot or bur horizontally.' Even the 

 golden pippin may be continued in this way, and the trees 

 have remained seven years in perfect health, when grafts 

 taken not only from the same tree, but from the very 

 branch, part of which was divided into cuttings, cankered 

 in two or three years. ' All apple-trees raised in this way,' 

 Biggs observes, ' from healthy one-year-old branches, with 

 blossom-buds upon them, will continue to go on bearing 

 the finest fruit, in a small compass, for many years. Such 

 trees are peculiarly proper for forcing, and not liable to 

 canker.' — -Hort, Trans, vol. i. p. 65. The cuttings are to 

 be chosen from the young wood of horizontal or oblique 

 branches, rather than from upright ones ; from six to eight 

 inches or more in length, with a small portion of old wood 

 at the lovv^er end. Cut off the tip of the shoot, and all the 

 buds, excepting two or three next the tip or upper extrem- 

 ity ; then smooth the sections at the lower end, and insert 

 them three or four inches in sandy loam, pressing the earth 

 firmly to them, watering, and covering with a hand-glass. 

 The proper time for this operation is early in February, 

 and the glass should not be touched, excepting to give 

 water, till the shoots have sprung an inch or two. Shade 

 during the mid-day sun, and begin to harden by giving air 

 in July ; finally, remove the glass in August ; and in October 

 transplant to nursery rows, or in pots, according to future 

 intention. With the burknot tribe, all that is necessary is 

 to plant the cuttings in a shady border, and treat them like 

 those of the gooseberry or currant." 



DANDELION. — Leontodon taraxacum,— This is a hardy 

 perennial plant, which is found growing spontaneously in 

 Great Britain and the United States. Loudon says that this 

 vegetable, " though regularly produced in London market, 

 is seldom or never cultivated, being generally to be found 

 9 



