72 
OPERATIONS FOR APRIL. 
cold nights. These things may be already better attended to than we are able 
to believe ; but we wish to see them effected on philosophical principles, and 
for the acknowledged purpose of enabling the growth of plants to acquire a degree 
of solidity as it advances. 
April is usually regarded as the month in which propagation should be mainly 
performed. There are three groups of plants, the cuttings of which require 
different treatment ; these being shrubby stove-plants, succulents, and greenhouse 
or half-hardy species. With all, however, the grand point is to strike them as 
quickly, but with as little heat, as practicable. Those of stove-plants naturally 
require the highest temperature ; yet, if the pots containing them are simply 
plunged in half-exhausted bark, without any assistance from fire-heat, they will 
root more speedily than most growers imagine, and certainly sooner attain a 
flowering state. 
The cuttings of succulents, such as Mesemhryanthema and Epiphylla, will 
need placing in a dark arid position for several days before planting, and are to 
be preserved particularly dry while striking. To this end, they should not be 
kept in a propagation-house, but in one of a much drier atmosphere, and simply 
covered with a hand-glass, over which a little shading can be thrown if the sun 
be too violent. 
In the multiplication of half-hardy plants, Which designation includes sub- 
shrubby and partly herbaceous species, a great heat is frequently employed, in the 
hope of preparing them sooner for summer transplantation. It is quite plain that 
such a design could never be fulfilled by that means ; for, instead of affording 
them an advantage over unsheltered species, it positively impedes their growth, 
as well as renders it exceedingly weak, and places the specimens in great jeopardy. 
An unnatural and debilitated development may doubtless be occasioned ; but when 
the plants so treated are transferred to the open air, its action will cause such a 
decided check, that all they may have previously gained will be more than 
counterbalanced thereby. 
From these considerations, it appears that heat is an indisputable evil in the 
increase of half-hardy plants, and should be very sparingly used. Both economy 
and beauty will be best realized by its total suspension ; and if a small house or 
frame be devoted to propagation, and its atmosphere confined by the jealous 
exclusion of outward air, covering each group of cuttings with a small hand-glass, 
every requisite will be furnished without incurring either expense or injury. 
Exactly the same may be said of greenhouse species. In those collections where 
the greatest number of common plants are annually raised, no heat is applied to 
the propagation-house ; and only the rarer kinds, of which an immediate multi- 
plication is required, are at all subjected to artificial excitation. 
