ON PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



263 



and most of the Rosaceae. The roots should be those of healthy plants, 

 rather young than old, and m general from half an inch to one or two 

 inches in thickness. They may be cut into lengths of from three to six or 

 nine inches, and planted in free soil, with the tops just above the surface. 

 Care must be taken that the upper end of the cutting, or that which was 

 next the stem before it was separated from the plant, be kept uppermost, 

 for if that is not done, the cutting will not grow. This is the case even with 

 cuttmgs of the horse-radish and sea-kale ; but if cuttings of the roots of these 

 and similar plants are laid down horizontally, and but slightly covered with 

 soil, they will protrude buds from what was the upper end before removal, and 

 send out roots from the lower end. All roses may be propagated by cut- 

 tings, and all fruit-trees which are seedlings, or have been raised by cuttings 

 or layers. The Roblnia, Acacia, Gledltschia, Coronilla, Gymnocladus, and 

 many other leguminossB ; Ailantus, Catalpa, the balsam Ontario and 

 Lombardy poplars, the English elm, the mulberry, the Madura, various 

 other ligneous plants, and all plants whatever that throw up suckers, may 

 be increased by cuttings of the roots ; as may a great number of herba- 

 ceous perennials. The best time of taking them off is when the plants are 

 in a dormant state, and all that is required is a clean cut at both ends. 



602. Striking cuttings in water or moist moss. — All marsh plants having 

 leafy stems, whether ligneous or herbaceous, will strike root in water, and 

 still better in vessels containing moss kept thoroughly moist. Besides 

 marsh plants, a gi-eat many others will root in this way, which, indeed, 

 seems the most ancient mode of artificial propagation. Cuttings of southern- 

 wood have been rooted in phials of water in cottage windows in Scotland 

 from time immemorial. Balsams also, and many other plants, may be so 

 rooted, but not any plant that is difficult to strike in sand. The chief diffi- 

 culty attending this mode of propagation is the transference of the rooted 

 cuttings from the water to the soil, which can hardly be done without a 

 severe check. The only mode is to saturate the soil thoroughly with water 

 before insertuig the plants in it, and to keep it well soaked afterwards till 

 the plants have begun to grow. 



608. Striking plants in powdered charcoal. — The use of sifted charcoal 

 dust, or, in other words, of charcoal in a state of powder, with the particles 

 not much larger than those of common sand, appears to have been first 

 adopted for rooting cuttings in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Munich, by 

 M. G. Lucas, in 1839. The details at great length will be found in the 

 " Gardeners' Magazine" for 1841, translated from the Garten Zeitung. It 

 may be sufficient here to state that powdered charcoal is used as a substitute 

 for sand, and that it answers best when it has for some months been ex- 

 posed to the air and weather ; also that it diffisrs from sand in not only 

 facilitating the rooting of cuttings, but in supplying them with nourish- 

 ment after they are rooted, and consequently no under stratum of soil 

 becomes necessary, as is the case where sand is used. The rationale of this 

 practice has been given in the Garten Zeitung, by Dr. Buchner (see Gard. 

 Mag., 1841, p. 252), and the following summary is from a work recently 

 published in London : — " It is essential to the rapid growth of a plant that 

 carbonic acid should be taken up by its roots as well as by its leaves. The 

 carbonic acid may be furnished in two ways ; either the soil may absorb it 

 from the atmosphere, or the decay in some of the matter contained in it may 

 disengage this product. It is a remarkable property, possessed by several 



