PROPAGATION AXD GENERAL TREATMENT. 



251 



four or five weeks, or till they have taken with the pots, when they may 

 be gradually exposed to the light. From various experiments/' Henderson 

 remarks, " I have found that pieces of two-year old wood struck quite 

 well; and in place, therefore, of putting in cuttings of six or eight 

 inches long, I have taken off cuttings from ten inches to two feet long, 

 and struck them "^ith equal success. 



This is a new, and, as it appears to us, the best method for obtaining 

 handsome, small-flowering plants, such as could be conveniently brought 

 into the drawing-room or flower-stand. However, when very large 

 specimens are wanted, and the intention is to fiU a separate house with 

 them, we would recommend the purchase of trees already grown to some 

 size, or the purchase of stocks of four or five feet in height, which can be 

 bought at reasonable charges from the ItaUan warehouse keepers, who 

 annually import plenty of such. These should be potted in large pots, 

 in a very rich and strong loam, and placed in a mild humid temperature, 

 when they may be budded in the Itahan manner, or grafted or inarched 

 like any other fruit-bearing tree. 



A correspondent in the Gard. Mag., Vol. I., p. 152, proposes, in the 

 case of newly imported orange and lemon trees, to immerse them half 

 way up their stems in water, at about sixty-four degrees, for twelve hours. 

 They are then to be potted, and their stems enveloped in soft hay-bands, 

 kept constantly moist, from the root to the bud. The shoots from the 

 bud to be cut down to three eyes, and finally the pots plunged into a bed 

 of nearly spent dung, made up in a vinery. The water used morning and 

 ev^ening was sLxtA'-five degrees, — the same temperature as the air in the 

 house. By following this method, the trees in ten days began to push 

 vigorously, while others, that were not enveloped nor soaked in water, 

 remained a month quite inactive. 



Oranges, lemons, and shaddocks may be multiphed by cuttings in the 

 following manner, and which is said to have been the invention of the 

 late Mr. Hoy, long the superintendent of the gardens at Sion House : — 

 The cuttings are selected from the young wood when it has attained a 

 rather firm texture, and is cut across close below a joint, and then sht 

 upward from the end to within a short distance from the next joint, at 

 wiiich joint it is tongued, as if it was to be laid. These sUts are kept 

 open by placing a small piece of stone or potsherd between the parts, as 

 is often done in layering vines, carnations, &c. Cuttings so made, and 

 planted in light, rich loam, and placed in a moderately warm and humid 

 hot -bed or pit, and kept close by being covered with a hand or beU glass, 

 will root speedily, and make excellent plants. 



