ROSE — SMI L A X . 401 



agreeable to breathe, but fatal to mildew. Again, a little sulfur may 

 be sprinkled here and there on the cooler parts of the greenhouse flue. 

 Under no circumstances, however, ignite any sulfur in a greenhouse. 

 The vapor of burning sulfur is death to plants. 



Propagation of house roses. — The writer has known women who 

 could root roses with the greatest ease. They would simply break off 

 a branch of the rose, insert it in the flower-bed, cover it with a bell- 

 jar, and in a few weeks they would have a strong plant. Again they 

 would resort to layering; in which case a branch, notched halfway 

 through on the lower side, was bent to the ground and pegged down so 

 that the notched part was covered with a few inches of soil. The 

 layered spot was watered from time to time. After three or four 

 weeks roots were sent forth from the notch and the branch or buds 

 began to grow, when it was known that the layer had formed roots. 



Several years ago a friend took a cheese-box, filled it with sharp 

 sand to the brim, supported it in a tub of water so that the lower half- 

 inch of the box was immersed. The sand was packed down, sprinkled, 

 and single-joint rose cuttings, with a bud and a leaf near the top, were 

 inserted almost their whole length in the sand. This was in July, a 

 hot month, when it is usually difficult to root any kind of cutting: 

 moreover, the box stood on a southern slope, facing the hot sun, with- 

 out a particle of shade. The only attention given the box was to keep 

 the water high enough in the tub to touch the bottom of the cheese- 

 box. In about three weeks he took out three or four dozen of as 

 nicely rooted cuttings as could have been grown in a greenhouse. 



The "saucer system," in which cuttings are inserted in wet sand 

 contained in a saucer an inch or two deep, to be exposed at all times 

 to the full sunshine, is of a similar nature. The essentials are, to give 

 the cuttings the "full sun" and to keep the sand saturated with 

 water. 



Whatever method is used, if cuttings are to be transplanted after 

 rooting, it is important to pot them off in small pots as soon as they 

 have a cluster of roots one-half inch or an inch long. Leaving them 

 too long in the sand weakens the cutting. 



Smilax of the florists is closely allied to asparagus (it is Asparagus 

 medeoloides of the botanists). While it cannot be recommended for 

 2d 



