210 THE PRESERVATION OF HALF-HARDY PLANTS. 
being enough for summer purposes. This is the most expensive and extravagant 
mode ; as, in a place of tolerable extent, having many flower-beds to fill, it will 
require a very considerable space in pits or frames to preserve an adequate supply. 
Others raise in autumn, by the same means, about a third or fourth of the 
plants they are likely to need, and propagate the rest from those in early spring, 
by cutting off and striking the younger shoots. The plants produced in the latter 
way are not, it is true, quite so strong as the autumn-raised specimens, but they 
are sometimes more healthy, and always, if taken off in good time, become 
excellent little specimens ere it is time to plant them out. The stock from which 
the cuttings are prepared, are, moreover, in no degree injured by the pruning ; for 
it would have to be effected by the prudent gardener, if the cuttings were not thus 
employed. As will be perceived, this is altogether a more economical and better 
plan than the preceding, so much less winter room being requisite. 
Some culturists, again, take up a few of the more healthy roots of each variety 
from the ground, reduce and pot them, and keep these in a greenhouse or frame 
through the winter to be multiplied in spring. By this system a still less amount 
of space is necessary in winter, and the plants are often put in the corner of a 
greenhouse. They have, however, to be a little excited, by a trifling bottom-heat, 
in spring, in order to induce them to send forth their branches in due abundance. 
The plants obtained from them are, consequently, hardly so healthy as those 
procured in either of the foregoing ways, and there is generally some risk of losing 
or greatly weakening plants that are potted in a small compass after ranging at full 
liberty in a free earth. 
More economical persons take up the roots in a similar manner, pot them in a 
smaller compass, cut off most of the branches, gradually bring the plants into a 
torpid state, and place them, for the winter, in a cool dry cellar, or other dark 
apartment, away from frost or damp, or anything that could either kill them or 
stimulate them to grow. They are brought from their confinement early in the 
season, put in a gentle hotbed frame, and propagated from the shoots they will 
then produce. There is more danger of losing the plants by this method, the 
spring growth is not so favourable, and the young plants are therefore inferior; 
while the saving of trouble and room is not proportioned to the contingent or 
certain evils. 
The plan which we have once or twice seen followed, which appears to combine 
economy of space with the attainment of healthiness in the plants, and which we 
cordially recommend as superior to any other we have met with, consists in striking 
a great quantity of cuttings during autumn, and retaining them in the cutting 
pots, without shifting, till spring. This does away with the necessity for spring 
propagation, the plants procured by which are inevitably weaker than those which 
have been rooted all the winter ; and it also renders very little room necessary for 
the preservation of the stock. 
To carry out the above plan, the cuttings should have been put in about the 
middle of last month, though it is not now too late to do so. They should be 
