PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



203 



In well-drained pots filled with peat and loamy soil, the majority of 

 greenhouse plants may be sown, covering them in proportion to the size 

 of the seeds ; and if the quantity to be sown be small, two, three, or four 

 sorts may be sown in one pot, divided in proportions for them. In such 

 cases care must be taken that each be labelled properly ; and the best way 

 is, when more than one sort is sown, to place the labels in the centre of 

 the pot with the names or numbers facing outwards. ^Yhen the seeds 

 are sown they should be watered with the finest rose-watering pot, and 

 placed in a cool, rather shaded part of the greenhouse, or cold pit, and 

 attended to in respect to regular watering and weeding. 



PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



Most greenhouse plants of the genera enumerated at the beginning of 

 this article may be increased by this means. The best time for this pur- 

 pose is that w^hen the plants are in a proper state, either in respect to 

 ripened wood, young wood, or wood of an intermediate state, for in all 

 these stages of growth is it used for different plants. As it is of some 

 importance that propagation be commenced as early in the season as pos- 

 sible, because cuttings do not succeed so weU during the heat of summer 

 as in the spring months, it may be necessary in many cases, where young 

 wood is required for this purpose, and where it does not exist on the plant 

 sufficiently early, to place those from which the cuttings are to be taken 

 in the stove, hot-bed, frame, or other warm situation, for a week or two 

 prior to the time of taking them off, which ranges from the end of 

 February till the end of April. In situations where circumstances will 

 not admit of forwarding the plants with heat, then the season of taking 

 off the cuttings must be made subordinate to it, that is, they are to be 

 taken off when they naturally amve at a proper size : of course the suc- 

 cess will be in proportion. May and June will, therefore, be the time for 

 propagating by this latter method, for by that period the plants will have 

 made wood naturally fit for the purpose. Pots for cuttings should be 

 well drained, and filled as near the surface wdth peat and loam as it is 

 calculated the cuttings will be inserted, or rather a little deeper. For it 

 is of importance to almost all these plants to be struck in pure sand, 

 but that the roots when they have begun to form should have a soil more 

 congenial to their nature to live in ; when this is not attended to, many 

 cuttings after they have struck root actually die off from want of suste- 

 nance ; and to guard against this many cultivators take the cuttings out 



