96 CUTTINGS, OR SLIPS. 



of the ligature, as well as in tliat of the ring, must be made be- 

 low the circles, and the cutting must be so planted as to have 

 the callus covered with earth.^' — Hort, Trans, vol. iv. p. 558. 



The insertion of the cuttings may seem an easy mat- 

 ter, and none but a practical cultivator would imagine that 

 there could be any difference in the growth, between cut- 

 tiiJgs inserted in the middle of a pot, and those inserted at 

 its sides. Yet such is actually the case, and some sorts of 

 trees, as the orange, ceratonia, &c. if inserted in a mere 

 mass of earth, will hardly, if at all, throw out roots, while, 

 if they are inserted in sand, or in earth at the sides of the 

 pots, so as to touch the pot in their Vvhole length, they 

 seldom fail of becoming rooted plants. Knight found the 

 mulberry strike very well by cuttings, when they were so 

 inserted, and when their lower ends touched a stratum of 

 gravel, or broken pots ; and Hawkins, {Hort. Trans, vol. 

 ii. p. 12,) who had often tried to strike orange trees with- 

 out success, at last heard of a method, by which, at first 

 trial, eleven cuttings out of thirteen grew. The art is to 

 place them to touch the bottom of the pot ; they are then 

 to be plunged in a bark or hot-bed, and kept moist." 



" The management of cuttings, after they are planted, de- 

 pends on the general principle, that, where life is weak, all 

 excesses of exterior agency must have a tendency to render 

 it extinct. No cutting requires to be planted deep, though 

 such as are large ought to be inserted deeper than such as 

 are small. In the case of evergreens, the leaves should be 

 kept from touching the soil, otherwise they will damp, and 

 rot off ; and in the case of tubular-stalked plants, which 

 are in general not very easily struck, owing to the water 

 lodging in the tube, and rotting the cutting, both ends m.ay, 

 in some cases, (as in common honey-suckle,) be advanta- 

 geously inserted in the soil, and, besides a greater certainty 

 of success, two plants will be produced. Too much light, 

 air, water, heat or cold, are alike injurious. To guard 

 againyt these extremes in tender sorts, the means hith- 

 erto devised is that of enclosing an atmosphere over the 

 cuttings, by means of a hand or bell-glass, according to 

 their delicacy. This preserves a uniform stillness and 

 moisture of atmosphere. Immersing the pot in earth, (if 

 the cuttings are in pots,) has a tendency to preserve a stea- 

 dy, uniform degree of moisture at the roots ; and shading, 

 or planting the cuttings, if in the open air, in a shady situa- 

 tion, prevents the bad effects of excess of light. Th« only- 

 method of regulating the heat is by double or single cover- 



