20 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



require to go through the precarious operation of separate 

 potting so soon after being struck. Should it be requisite to 

 have a considerable number of cuttings made at the same time, 

 it would be proper to have a one-light frame with close sashes, 

 placed on a moderate hot-bed ready to receive them. It should 

 be covered with saw-dust or clean tan, about a foot deep, in 

 which to plunge the pots ; but if there be only a few done, 

 they may be plunged in any frame, amongst other things, pro- 

 vided there be a moderate heat." Many stove-plants strike so 

 readily, that some cultivators put up a small hot-bed on pur- 

 pose, which may be of the size of one or more lights, according 

 to the number intended to be propagated ; when this bed has 

 come to a proper temperature, it is earthed over to the depth 

 of a foot or fourteen inches, with the mould most congenial to 

 the majority of the plants to be propagated. In this mould 

 the cuttings are inserted pretty close together, and there they 

 remain until rooted, when they are taken up and potted off in 

 the usual manner. The principal feature of this method is, 

 that the bed resembles what we may call one large pot, into 

 which the cuttings are placed, the frame and lights being per- 

 fectly tight, act, as it were, in the place of a corresponding 

 large bell or hand-glass ; very little air is consequently given 

 while the cuttings remain without root, but as these are formed, 

 air is admitted gradually to them. All the while damp must 

 be carefully guarded against, and all appearance of it removed 

 when it occurs. 



Dry-stove plants are propagated in the same manner, with 

 the exception of such as are succulent. In regard to them, 

 the cuttings or pieces of the branches should always have their 

 top left uninjured, and none of the leaves removed where they 

 exist, excepting such as would be inserted under the mould : 

 such only should be removed, and that carefully, so as not to 

 lacerate or wound the stem of the cutting. When the cut- 

 ting is removed from the parent-plant, it should be laid by to 

 dry for some days, more or less, according to its succulency ; 

 for if planted immediately after being separated from the plant, 

 they would be apt to rot or damp off'. Some species of these 

 plants may, however, be j^lanted as soon as taken off, but by 



