THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
305 
cutting has time enough to make roots, by which its grosser foo d 
may be conveyed to it. Hence has arisen the practice of striking 
plants under bell-glasses, fitting tight to the soil on which they rest. 
Ignorant people believe that the use of a bell-glass is to keep out 
air, which is impracticable and useless. Bell-glasses act by keeping 
in moisture. From the surface of warm, damp soil water is per- 
petually escaping in the form of invisible vapour ; if the soil is freely 
exposed, that vapour is dispersed as fast as it is formed ; but when 
it is confined beneath a bell-glass the air is unchanged, and the 
vapou r remains in a state of suspension, bathing and invigorating 
the whole surface of the cuttings. If this is well managed the whole 
of the injurious effects of sunlight are prevented, and all the advan- 
tages of it secured. But it is not sufficient to place cuttings under 
a bell-glass with a moist soil and a due supply of bottom-heat. Two 
other things must be considered — the one is, to preserve the external 
air in a uniform state ; the other is, to take care that the soil is not 
too wet. If the air on the outside of the bell-glasses is not as warm 
as that beneath them, or warmer, the moisture floating in their 
interior will condense on the sides of the glass and run down, by 
which means the air that surrounds the cuttings will fluctuate as to 
the quantity of water it holds suspended ; and if the external air is 
much colder than the internal, will, in fact, be dry instead of damp. 
In their delicate state tender cuttings will not bear this ; it is of the 
utmost consequence to them that all the conditions to which they 
are exposed, except light, should be perfectly steady. 
The condition of the soil as to water, is also of infinite importance 
If it is wet, cuttings are apt to rot. If dry, they are sure to fade 
When a cutting is placed in a wet medium, it may attract mor e 
water than it can digest ; in that case its fluids will become putrid 
and its solid fabric must decay. It is therefore indispensable, in all 
delicate operations, that the soil should be of such a nature as to be 
incapable of holding much water between its particles and hence 
the value of silver sand, the most favourable of all the materials 
within a gardener’s reach. Nevertheless, there are some hard- wooded 
plants which will not only bear an excess of water, but are the better 
for it. We have seen the common Ghent Azaleas struck by placing 
a cutting of the young wood with a heel to it, in a bottle of water, 
enclosed within a large Ward’s case, none of the leaves having been 
removed. 
In such plants as the azalea, however, it is to be observed, 
that the dense texture of the wood prevents the introduction of 
much water at a time, that the cuttings are very slender, and the 
leaves very large. Plants that are differently constituted can bear 
no such treatment. Let it be tried with a succulent plant, and the 
cutting would be rotten in a week. Succulent plants, indeed, will 
generally do best where there is no more moisture in contact with 
them than what the air holds suspended. When they are gu mmy, or 
milky, or resinous, it is necessary to let the end which is to be plunged 
in the ground become dry, so that the mouths of the veins may con- 
tract, and thus hinder the too rapid introduction of water. Mr. 
Neumann’s mode of doing this is ingenious. When he takes oft 
October. 
