1038 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Mar, 



a sharp knife at right angles, cut off tlie small end, close to the 

 joint or place where it was pulled off the plant. Having done 

 this, plant them into a pot filled with small pit or river sand, 

 giving them a good watering to settle the sand about them. Set 

 them on a shelf where they are a little shaded, cover them with 

 glasses, and notice to keep the sand always moist. Some of 

 them will be well rooted in three months, and others will re- 

 quire six months before they are fit to pot off." Mr. W. B. 

 Page, of the Southampton Nurseries, an intelligent cultivator, 

 and who was educated in the first school in Europe for the 

 cultivation of this genus, observes : " A prejudice having 

 spread that the culture of these plants is difficult, one of the 

 greatest ornaments of the green-house has hence of late been 

 neglected, although the method of culture be as easy and 

 nearly as certain as that of the geranium, but requiring a 

 little more delicacy in the execution." Indeed, the whole pro- 

 cess of propagation by cuttings, requires a deal of nicety in the 

 operation, as well as a constant care during the whole process; 

 and though long practised upon such plants as the willow, the 

 vine, and many others, which must have been pointed out to 

 man by Nature soon after his creation, it was, however, so 

 little known when applied to delicate exotics, that fifty years 

 ago, even in this country, it was scarcely known but to a few 

 of the most eminent gardeners. Upon the subject of propa- 

 gation by cuttings, as it may be supposed to interest a great 

 part of our readers, the following extracts from that valuable 

 work, the Encyclopaedia of Gardening, may be both interesting 

 and useful : — " In respect to the choice of cuttings, those 

 brar.chcs of trees and shrubs which are thrown out nearest 

 the ground, and especially such as recline, or nearly so, on the 

 earth's surface, have always the greatest tendency to produce 

 roots. Even the branches of resinous trees, which are ex- 

 tremely difficult to propagate by cuttings, when reclining on 

 the ground, if accidentally or otherwise covered with earth on 

 any part, will there often throw out roots, and the extremity 

 of the lateral shoot will assume the character of a main-stem, 

 as may be sometimes seen in the larch, spruce, and silver fir. 

 Cuttings then are to be chosen from tl.c side-shoots of plants 

 rather than from their summits or main-stems, and the strength 

 and health of side-shoots being equal, those nearest the ground 



