IS 



TilE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



" The cuttings may be made almost every season of the year, 

 yet the months of April, May, and June, are certainly the 

 most proper, as the plants are at that season plentifully sup- 

 plied with young wood, which, in most species, produce roots, 

 when made into cuttings, much sooner than the old wood will 

 if used in the same manner." After detailing the manner in 

 which the pots should be prepared for the reception of the 

 cuttings, which is not different from what we have already no- 

 ticed in treating of green-house plants, he proceeds : " On 

 the purity and clearness of the loam depends, in a great mea- 

 sure, the success of many of the tenderer kinds of cuttings, 

 particularly those that are obliged to be kept in a moist heat, 

 as it is, when contaminated with other composts, very liable 

 in these situations to cause damp and rottenness by the par- 

 ticles of putrifying matter generally contained in mixed earths, 

 and the properties of which are put in motion by the applica- 

 tion of heat. As an exception to this rule, may be adduced 

 sand, which is of great utility to mix with loam, should it 

 happen to be rather stiff, for the nature of the cuttings ; but 

 then the sand proper for this use is of so pure a nature in 

 itself, that it is evident it cannot have the effect noticed 

 above in regard to mixed soils." In regard to the choice of 

 cuttings, the following observations are also in some degree 

 different fi'om that which we have already noticed. In select- 

 ing cuttings, the same author observes, preference should be 

 given to the firmest wood, of the same year's growth ; and of 

 these, only such whose leaves have attained their full size and 

 proper colour, whicii are generally to be selected from the 

 lateral shoots, as the upright leading shoots are mostly too 

 luxuriant to make good cuttings. The cuttings of many plants, 

 if taken from the lateral shoots, never become proper erect 

 stems, but are inclined at all times to form an irregular, bushy, 

 weak head : this is but of small importance to those collectors 

 who cultivate plants merely for the flower, as such heads gene- 

 rally produce them sooner than luxuriant leaders. The lovers 

 of handsome erect plants, however, choose their cuttings from 

 the upright shoots early in the season, before they acquire that 

 luxuriance of growth so unfit for the purposes of propagation. 

 The tops of the shoots are to be preferred, unless they happen 



