182 
ADVANTAGES OF STRIKING CUTTINGS IN WATER. 
possesses merely a few roots of the plants. Some half-dozen roots, which appeared 
in good condition at the commencement of the late spring-, were placed on a little 
heap of loose earth, on the floor of a vinery, which was at work in forcing a set of 
vines in pots. It was thought that the gentle heat would stimulate the embryos 
sufficiently ; and that the progress of growth could thus be daily observed. 
The experiment was not fully successful, and some shoots fell a sacrifice to 
slugs ; so that it appeared most prudent, as the season was far advanced, to plant 
the roots at once into the open ground. Four of them produced good shoots, one 
was very weak, and the sixth was exhausted. To supply the loss three cuttings 
of the strongest were taken off below the third or fourth joint, and put into the 
same bottle, which was placed on a shelf of the stove, close to a side light facing 
the south-west sun. During ten days little change occurred, but at length the 
lower ends of each cutting enlarged, the bark opened in fissures much resembling 
those of a vine where aerial roots are protruded, pithy adhesive substance filled up 
each crack, and from this fibrous processes now emerge — for the experiment is at 
this moment in progress. 
Balsams propagate freely in water, by cuttings of any size whatever; but in no 
vegetable production is the advantage to be derived from the process more evident 
than in the families of the melon tribe. Plants may be formed in a very short 
period (sometimes in three days) ; and being transferred to small pots of heath 
mould, will produce perfect balls of roots in less than a week. 
In like manner experience has shown that Gloxinias, and Gesneria^ Heliotro- 
pium Peruvianum, Aloysia citriodora, Petunia, Alonsoas, Salvias, Turnera 
trioniflora, Thunbergia, Melastoma ccerulea, Gardenia ftorida, with many other 
stove and greenhouse plants, can be. propagated. Brunsfelsia has not been tried, but 
the texture of its young shoots, about the middle of July, leads to the idea of a 
successful issue ; the season which heretofore has proved most favourable is the 
hottest period of summer, i. e. from the middle of June to the end of August. 
The practice is, however, still in its infancy ; and thus a mere outline of its 
first principles can be traced. 
''But/' says the professional man, " cui bono — to what does all this tend ? cut- 
tings may indeed be converted into plants by the agency of pure rain water, or that 
obtained from ponds, rivers, or deep wells, which last abounds with salts of lime ; but 
they may be and are successfully treated in the ordinary routine of striking." — 
True ! this is admitted : but in that ordinary routine numbers are lost : they 
do not take to the soil, or damp off and perish, after having excited hopes of suc^ 
cess for months ; and all the changes are produced — sub umbra — in the dark. In 
water, if the plant succeed at all, it never droops; the operation is performed in a 
minute, and little anxiety results from the situation in which the vessel is placed. 
The progress of every development is discernible ; and the operator contemplates 
with admiration the phenomena produced by the co-existent decomposition and 
•absorption of water, under the stimulus of solar light above and radiated heat from 
beneath, when the vessel isplunged in a hot-bed 
The gardener becomes a philosopher ; he sees before him proofs of vital action 
