258 



ON PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



air can be excluded, a moist temperature maintained, and in very warm 

 sunshine a dense shade can be given. Even in these houses, bell-glasses 

 should be placed over the more difficult cuttings, to protect them from 

 all such external influences as might destroy them before they have made 

 their roots. 



588. After treatment of cuttings. — The hardiest sorts in the open garden, 

 such as gooseberries, &c., require no particular treatment whatever, and 

 need not even be placed in a shady situation ; but those which root less 

 freely, such as box, holly, juniper, &c., succeed best when planted in a shady 

 border, in a sandy soil. Cuttings planted in pots or boxes require to be 

 placed not only in a shady situation, but for the most part under glass, in 

 order to diminish evaporation from the soil as well as from the cuttings. 

 All the more delicate sorts of cuttings, such as heaths and most house plants, 

 require to be covered with a bell-glass, and shaded during bright sunshine. 

 In close moist warm atmospheres, such as that maintamed in the propagating 

 pits of some nurserymen (see 574), most kinds of cuttings will strike with- 

 out bell-glasses over them ; but in general, these glasses are requisite, in 

 order to maintain a steady moist atmosphere. All cuttings with the leaves 

 on require to be looked over frequently, supplied with water when it is 

 wanting, and such leaves as decay taken off, as well as any dead or dying 

 cuttings removed. 



589. TJie most proper form of bell-glass for covering cuttings is that which 

 gradually tapers from the base to the top ; as from glasses of this shape the 

 moisture, which adheres to the inside in the form of drops, runs gradually 

 off, without the dropping so injurious to cuttings. This disadvantage is 

 found in all other forms more or less ; such as those that are round at the 

 top, or cylindrical with the top bluntly truncated. The enclosed air under 

 the glasses will soon lose its oxygen through the respiring process of the 

 plants within, and also be vitiated by other exhalations ; and, if it is not 

 changed, it generates mouldiness, and the cuttings lose their fresh appear- 

 ance. For this reason the glasses, if possible, should be daily ventilated and 

 wiped ; or, what is still better, as it will entirely renew the air, dipped in 

 a vessel of cold water, and well shaken before being put on again, so that 

 too many drops of water may not remain on the glass. In an extensive 

 establishment this operation requires too much time, and therefore round 

 holes, of about from ^ in. to j in. in diameter, should be made in the tops 

 of the glasses ; and these will prove very serviceable, if the pans stand on 

 hotbeds or other heated surfaces. In small gardens, where the cuttings are 

 placed with other plants on the bed or shelf close under the front glass, 

 bell-glasses, without holes, would be preferable. When the ground is 

 warmed to about 55° Fah., it is better, with some few exceptions, such as 

 the iaurus species, to place the glasses inside of the pots, so that the tem- 

 perature within may not rise too high ; but when the warmth is not so 

 great, they may, without injxiry, be placed on the outside of the edge of the 

 pot. 



590. Watering cuttings is an operation requiring great care and judgment. 

 The object is, to maintain as uniform a degree of moisture in the soil as 

 possible, without occasioning mouldiness on its surface or rotting the leaves. 

 Hence, the water is in some cases poured on the soil in such a manner as not 

 to touch the leaves of the cuttings, and in others a reservoir of water is 

 formed by placing a small pot in the centre of a larger one, the water being 



