354 



HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



from the original plant, the root end is placed 

 in a phial of water, and the top end laid in a pot. 

 The intention of the end being kept in the phial 

 of water, is to supply it with moisture while the 

 rooting is taking place. 



Propagating by cuttings of single eyes or buds. 

 — Next to the seed, the eye or bud is the part of 

 a plant by which its propagation is best effected. 

 This has already been shown in the cases of 

 budding, grafting, layering, and striking by cut- 

 tings, in neither of which cases can roots be 

 formed or growth be effected without the pre- 

 sence of a bud. Buds thus containing within 

 themselves the elements necessary for the pro- 

 duction of a new plant are taken advantage of 

 by cultivators, although not to the extent in 

 practice that might be, seeing that, theoretically 

 speaking, almost all plants are capable of being so 

 increased. The potato, Jerusalem artichoke, &c, 

 ever since their introduction, have been propa- 

 gated by eyes; the vine, since the time of Speech- 

 ley* by the same means. — {Vide art. Vine.) 

 Many exotics, both woody and herbaceous, as the 

 bignonia, hollyhock, &c, are readily multiplied 

 by single eyes. In deciduous plants, like the vine 

 and bignonia, it is only necessary that the eye 

 should be dormant, and that a portion of the 

 wood on which it is produced be taken with it. 

 This portion of wood is in general not more than 

 an inch in length ; and often when buds are 

 placed opposite to each other, this piece of wood 

 is split through the middle, each eye forming 

 a plant. There is no obvious reason why we 

 should be so sparing of this piece of wood, seeing 

 the larger it is the more organisable matter it 

 must contain, and consequently support the 

 bud with a larger amount of nutriment, until it 

 forms roots for its own support. It therefore 

 follows that buds having 6 or 7 inches of the 

 wood on which they are produced, instead 

 of one inch, left attached to them, and covered 

 with soil, must afford a proportionably greater 

 supply of strength to the nascent branch. The 

 late Mr Knight appears to have been of this opin- 

 ion, and in the 2d vol. of the rt Hort. Soc. Trans." 

 offers the following explanation : " Every leaf- 

 bud is well known to be capable of extending 

 itself into a branch, and of becoming the stem 

 of a future tree ; but it does not contain, nor is 

 it at all able to prepare and assimilate, the 

 organisable matter required for its extension 

 and development. This must be derived from 

 a different source — the alburnous substance 

 of the tree, which appears the reservoir in all 

 this tribe of plants in which such matter is 

 deposited. I found a very few grains of albur- 

 num to be sufficient to support a bud of the 

 vine, and to occasion the formation of minute 

 leaves and roots ; but the early growth of such 

 plants was extremely slender and feeble, as if 

 they had sprung from small seeds ; and the buds 

 of the same plant, wholly detached from the 

 alburnum, were incapable of retaining life. The 

 quantity of alburnum being increased, the growth 

 of the buds increased in the same proportion ; 

 and when cuttings of a foot long, and composed 

 chiefly of two-year-old wood, were employed, the 

 first growth of the buds was nearly as strong 

 as it would havo been if the cuttings had not 



been detached from the tree. The quantity of 

 alburnum in every young and thriving tree, 

 exclusive of the palm tribe, is proportionate 

 to the number of its buds ; and if the number 

 of these were, in any instance, ascertained and 

 compared with the quantity of alburnous matter 

 in the branches, stem, and roots, it would be 

 found that nature has always formed a reservoir 

 sufficiently extensive to supply every bud. But 

 those of a cutting, under the most favourable 

 circumstances, must derive their nutriment 

 from a more limited and precarious source, and 

 it is therefore expedient that the gardener 

 should, in the first instance, make the most 

 ample provision conveniently within his power 

 for their maintenance, and that he should sub- 

 sequently attend very closely to the economi- 

 cal expenditure of such provision." This ex- 

 planation applies also to cuttings set in the 

 usual manner, but in such cases a considerable 

 portion of the cutting is exposed to the air, and 

 subject to lose much more of its organisable 

 matter than when laid fiat and covered with 

 soil in the way that a cutting of a single eye cut 

 to the length of an inch would be. We have 

 invariably found, in propagating by this means, 

 that when 3 or 4 inches on each side of the bud 

 or eye have been retained, and when their ends 

 have been covered with sealing-wax, and the 

 whole cutting, except the eye, covered with soil, 

 the young shoots produced have been much 

 stronger than when the cutting has been planted 

 erect, or when it has beefci divested of its wood, 

 as done in general when single eyes are used. 

 Plants having large buds strike readier by eyes 

 than those having small buds — no doubt for the 

 reason conjectured by Lindley, " that such eyes 

 are not sufficiently excitable, and that conse- 

 quently they decay before their vital energies 

 are roused ; and, in addition, they do not con- 

 tain within themselves a sufficient quantity of 

 organisable matter upon which to exist until 

 new roots are formed." 



Knight's explanation, and the sound reason 

 last given, perhaps led to the process of propa- 

 gating the vine by what has been called the 

 coiling system already referred to, for which see 

 fully art. Vine. 



The rarer and better kinds of holyhocks and 

 many similar plants can only be increased, with 

 a certainty of continuing the already improved 

 varieties, by an extension of themselves by cut- 

 tings, and this is usually done by cutting down 

 the principal stem so soon as it shows its merits 

 on flowering. The young shoots which, after 

 this treatment, spring from the crown, are usu- 

 ally selected for cuttings ; and as they are not 

 very profusely produced, the progress of in- 

 crease is necessarily slow. A more expeditious 

 mode of increase will be found by dividing the 

 weaker shoots which rise round the main one, 

 after they have attained the length of 1 8 inches 

 or 2 feet, into cuttings of one bud each, much 

 in the way vines are propagated. These bud- 

 cuttings, when planted in light rich soil, will 

 each produce a plant under ordinary good ma- 

 nagement. The main stem may also be used if 

 cut in lengths of 2 or 3 inches, dividing the stem 

 longitudinally, taking care not to injure the 



