ON DIFFERENT WAYS OF STRIKING ROSES. 



515 



Side-split Cuttings.* — This cutting is made in the ordinary manner 

 with leaves on ; then a longitudinal slit is made in the hark, from about 

 three millimetres from tho end, and of about three Centimetres in length, 

 from the bottom upwards. (Fig. 147.) This cut lifts up a strip of hark and 

 wood two or throe millimetres thick, which only romains attached to the 

 cutting by its upper end. In a word, supposing you make an ordinary 

 "layer," with a cut in it, and instead of Leaving it still joined to the 

 plant you treat it as an ordinary outting, you will have an idea of the 

 system. 1 use this method for small shrubs and other plants bhat are 

 difficult to strike, and it succeeds admirably with Roses. 



Those who are in the habit of layering many plants know that the 



Fig. 147. Sidk-bi'Lit Cutting hkady fob Planting. 



roots form more rapidly on that part which is almost severed from the 

 main stem, and to which it remains attached by its upper end only. 

 Well, in the side-split-cutting (boitture marcotte), the result is the same : 

 the roots always appear more quickly, and in greater number, on that part 

 of the wood that has been partly severed, than on the base. Cuttings 

 obtained in this manner are also stronger than those made in the ordinary 

 way, because tho callus (often very hard) which forms on tho latter before 

 the roots appear checks the circulation of the sap. 



Notched Cuttings. — Varieties that an; difficult to increase may be 



* In French boutures marcoltes, literally " cutting layers," hut it seems hotter to 

 invent a descriptive English compound word. W. W., Translator. 



l '2 



