35 
ON CUTTINGS. 
To resume the subject of Radification, which was quitted somewhat abruptly in 
the last number, we must, in the first place, admit that professional gardeners contemn 
the practice of striking cuttings of plants in water, or at least they regard the 
attempt as a plaything, little worthy of those to whom the superintendence of large 
establishments is confided. 
There is no one thing in nature that ought to be despised, yet it may safely be 
admitted that all things, however good in themselves, may not, to all men, be 
expedient. It becomes the peculiar province of the amateur, whose delight it is to 
observe the phenomena of vitalised organisation, to seize and report every interesting 
fact, and as such we venture unhesitatingly to assert, that there is no operation of 
horticulture which does more to elucidate the process of radification than does 
that of placing cuttings of every kind of plant, shrubby or herbaceous, in phials of 
simple clear water. Some years since, experiments of this description were made to 
a considerable extent, and these were publicly stated. 
Not, however, to dwell upon minutiae, we need only refer to a great number of 
shrubs ; one of which is the lovely old-fashioned Hibiscus Rosa sinensis, double and 
single, which will slowly and progressively develope in water, first the ring of 
granular matter between the wood and bark of last year, and then fibres. The 
Hoya carnosa — even the single leaf, though it does not appear that from it any bud 
or germ of a shoot can proceed ; the Scarlet Pelargonium at any season ; the 
Nerium Oleander splendens, which will not only strike but grow, and prosper for two 
years by a renewal of the same fluid. The shoots, leaves with a bud, or single leaves 
of all the Gloxinias will protrude granular matter, and form a bulb, if so it may be 
called. Mint, Peppermint, Myosotis, and numbers of vegetables will yield long roots 
with great velocity, and plants, of the Melon family, will do the same. One Cucumber 
leaf without a bud we have observed to fill a large bottle. Let any one try such 
plants, and hundreds of others, in every imaginable way, either as to the form, the 
size, the age, or the situation of the cutting as to light, shade, temperature, plunged 
or unplunged; and if he do not observe ample cause for high admiration, and 
effects more wonderful than has been appreciated by merely practical operators, we 
shall be much surprised indeed. Cuttings placed in a clean glass phial of water 
exhibit the processes of nature without obstacle, and may be lifted from time to time 
sufficiently to permit of even microscopic investigation without injury : this is a 
great advantage to the physiologist. 
These cuttings doubtless obey the natural law to a great extent ; but not entirely 
so, because the element or fluid medium is different, and much light permeates the 
transparent vessel ; however, as the internal organisation of the vitalised member 
remains the same, it will be just to offer to the reader those judicious observations 
that are found in Loudon's Encyclopaedia, " Science of Gardening," 2877, et seq. 
