36 
ON CUTTINGS. 
" The proper time for taking cuttings from the mother plant, is when the sap is 
in full motion, in order that, in returning by the bark, it may form a callus, or 
protruding ring of granular substance between the bark and the wood, whence the 
roots proceed. As this callus or ring of spongy matter is generally best formed in 
ripened wood, the cutting, when taken from the mother-plant, should contain a 
part of the former year, or in plants which grow twice a year, of the wood of the 
former growth ; or in the case of plants which are continually growing, as most 
evergreen exotics, such wood as has begun to ripen or assume a brownish colour. 
This is the true principle of the choice of cuttings as to time." " Cuttings from 
herbaceous plants are chiefly chosen from the raw growths which do not indicate a 
tendency to blossom ; but they will also succeed in many cases when taken from 
the flower-stems, and some rare sorts of florists' flowers and border flowers, as the 
Dahlia, Eocket, Cardinal Flower, Scarlet Lychnis, Wall-flower, &c, are so propa- 
gated. The preparation of the cutting depends upon the principle that the power of 
protruding roots resides at what are called the joints, or those where leaves or buds 
already exist. Hence it is that cuttings ought always to be cut across, with the 
smoothest and soundest section possible, at an eye or joint." 
" Cuttings which are difficult to strike, may be rendered more tractable by 
ringing ; if a ring be made on the shoot which is to furnish the cutting, a callus will 
be created, which if inserted after the cutting is taken off, into the ground, will 
readily emit roots." The amputation must be made below the circle, and the 
cutting must be so planted as to have the callus covered with earth. 
The position of a cutting when inserted in soil, is of no little moment in cases of 
difficulty, " Thus Mr. Knight (of Downton) found the Mulberry strike very well 
when the cuttings were so inserted as that their lower ends touched a stratum of 
gravel or broken pots." And a Mr. Hawkins (as per " Hort. Trans.," vol. ii. p. 12) 
who had often tried to strike Orange-trees without success, at last heard of a 
method, (re-discovered by Luscombe) by which, at the first trial, eleven cuttings out 
of thirteen grew. " The art is, to place them to touch the bottom of the pot ; they 
are then to be plunged in a bark or hot-bed and kept moist." 
We have, by these abbreviated extracts from Loudon, endeavoured to interpret 
the practical theory of propagation by cuttings when inserted in sand, heath-soil or 
bog-earth, garden-mould, and the like. Whether or not the position of the cutting 
placed in a phial of soft water, may be influential, has not been made the subject of 
inquiry. It might so happen that were the base made to repose upon a layer of 
little fragments of pots, an interflow, upon the principle of Dutrochet's endosmosis 
and exosmosis might be established, and thus keep the vital fluids in a more active 
condition ; at all events, they who possess the means would do well to have recourse 
to them. Amateurs of intelligence may rest assured that they are the parties who 
will discover, and should make known their discoveries to the horticultural world. 
It is generally supposed that the granular substance, which ultimately protrudes 
fibrous roots, is a generation of new organised matter ; but herein parties are at 
