Mar.] GREEN-IIOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 1037 



for, if left too long in the cutting pots, the sand is apt to injure 

 their roots. When they are first potted, they should be kept 

 under a close glass for a few days, or in a frame on a gentle 

 hot-bed, and shaded from the sun with a mat till they have 

 taken fresh root, (this last is particularly applicable to cuttings 

 of stove plants,) then harden them to the air by degrees. When 

 the young plants are drawn up too slender, their tops should 

 be pinched off, which will make them grow bushy. It is 

 always best to top plants when young, if wanted to make them 

 grow * bushy ;' if left to run up high, the knife must be used, 

 which causes a wound that sometimes is unsightly. No leaves 

 should be taken off the plants in this state, except decayed 

 ones, for it weakens them very much. Taking off a large 

 leaf from a young plant will generally kill it, a circum- 

 stance," as Mr. Sweet observes, " with which few cultivators 

 are acquainted." 



The majority of shrubby plants will increase by cuttings of 

 the branches, although there be exceptions to this rule in some 

 of the species of Acacia, and some others, when cuttings of the 

 roots are made use of as substitutes ; and some species of 

 plants, which are generally easily propagated, such as Peler- 

 gonium^ require the same means of propagation, of which 

 P. triste, gibbostwii and some others, may serve as examples. 

 Some numerous families, such as Erica, are, for the most part, 

 propagated from cuttings of the young wood, and the remainder 

 from seed. Upon the propagation of this delightful genus, that 

 successful cultivator, Mr. Henderson, of Wood Hall, near Glas- 

 gow, offers the following remarks : — " The month of July is 

 a good time for puttin<^ in most of those cuttings ; but they 

 must not be taken off till the young wood be firm. Cuttings 

 of Ericas may be put in at any time when the wood is in a pro- 

 per state." Many of them will be so by the latter end of this 

 month, and sometimes some species are forwarded in a little 

 heat, so as to enable their propagation to commence as early in 

 the season as possible, that they may be fully established in pots 

 before the commencement of winter. But to return to Mr. 

 Henderson's mode of propagation: " Take the cuttings off 

 the plants, about three-quarters of an inch long, pulling them 

 off downwards, strip ofl'the leaves nearly half the length of the 

 cuttings ; place the cutting on the nail of the thumb, and, with 



