PROPAGATION OF FLOWER-GARDEN PLANTS. 
161 
subject to circumstances, be chosen when they will most easily root, should be suffi- 
ciently soon to enable the cuttings to form good substantial plants. Imagining they 
are to be selected from the beds of the flower-garden, the time when the best may be 
had, and when they can best be spared, is a period of five or six weeks from the 
time of the appearance of this in print. It is not asserted the land of cuttings best 
to be chosen can then alone be found, but it is insisted upon, then is the proper and 
best time to choose them for our purpose, more because there is a considerable period 
required to enable the plants to become established and hardened against the winter 
than for any other reason. The kind of cuttings to be selected are such as embodies 
within the least compass the greatest amount of living principle ; shoots as nearly 
resembling young plants raised from seed as can be found: abundance of this 
description are, at the season in question, to be met with, rising as suckers from the 
base and shooting from old stems of plants turned out. Why such are best to be 
taken is obvious enough ; as they are, it may be said, from the heart of the plant : 
they possess a greater share of its energy and strength than other shoots, therefore 
are they better able to endure the dreary winter ; and in employing them there is 
the additional advantage, that, under any circumstances, they are the readiest to 
emit roots. The modern method of choosing those shoots of plants least succulent, 
and which are most likely to possess the germs of inflorescence, except in certain 
instances, is of no utility if carried out in selecting those of the plants in 
question. 
The circumstances under which plants, when they are raised, are to be preserved 
through the winter affect the way in which they are struck, though it does not 
interfere with the time when the cuttings are taken, or render it less necessary to 
obtain good plants. If they can be accommodated in the most favourable manner, 
that is, allowed all the room they require, in the most suitable situation, there is 
nothing more required after they are rooted than to pot them, ready for turning out 
when the period arrives. But, if in the other extreme, so little accommodation can 
be afforded for them, that their preservation and welfare, as compared with other 
plants, becomes of secondary importance, the manner in which they are placed to 
root is of different consequence. Having seen the proper time to choose cuttings, 
and the proper kind of cuttings to choose, the manner of inducing them to become 
plants next presents itself for consideration : this should always be done in that way 
which least excites and exhausts the living principle of the cutting. It is an over-sight, 
and " killing by kindness " principle to place the cuttings in too warm a place to root. 
The effect upon them invariably is, a quick emission of roots, and also a rank and 
exhausting growth, with no part of their organisation maturing as it increases ; hence 
the plants so raised are, in the first place, in tenfold degree more difficult to preserve 
in winter, from their weakness and consequent liability to be destroyed by cold and 
damp ; whereas, if struck in a proper temperature, where they can be induced to 
form roots and mature without becoming exhausted by immature and unprofitable 
development, they are infinitely more valuable, both as regards their capability to 
VOL. XTTT. NO. CLT. Y 
