223 
about three inches long. These were tlien pulled off, and 
reduced to about an inch in length, with a single mature leaf 
upon the upper end of each ; and the cuttings were then 
planted so deeply in the soil, that the buds at the bases of the 
leaves were but just visible above the surface of the soil. The 
cuttings were then covered with bell-glasses, in pots, and put 
upon the flue of a hothouse, and subjected to a temperature 
of about 80°. Water was very abundantly given; but the 
under surfaces of the leaves were not wetted. These were, in 
the slightest degree, faded, though they were wholly exposed 
to the sun ; and roots were emitted in about fifteen days. I 
subjected a few cuttings, taken from the bearing-branches of a 
mulberry tree, to the same mode of management, and with the 
same result; and I think it extremely probable that the 
different varieties of camellia, and trees of almost every species, 
exclusive of the fir tribe, might be propagated with perfect 
success and facility by (he same means. 
Evergreen trees of some species possess the power of ripen- 
ing their fruit during winter. The common ivy and the loquat 
are well known examples of this; and this circumstance, 
combined with many others, led me to infer that the leaves of 
such trees possess in a second year the same, or nearly the 
same, power, as in the first. I therefore planted, about a 
month ago, some cuttings of the old double-blossomed white 
and Warratah camellia, having reduced the wood to little more 
than half an inch in length, and cut it off obliquely, so as to 
present a long surface of it; and I reduced it further by paring 
it very thin, at and near to its lower extremities. The leaves 
continue to look perfectly fresh ; and the buds, in more than 
one instance, have produced shoots of more than an inch in 
length, and apparently possessing perfect health and much 
vigour. Water has been very abundantly given; because I 
conceived that the flow' of arterial sap from the leaf would be 
so great, comparatively with the quantity of the bark and 
alburnum of the cuttings, as to preclude the possibility of the 
rooting of these. 
The cuttings above described present, in the organization, a 
considerable resemblance to seedling trees, at different periods 
of the growth of the latter. The bud very closely resembles 
the plumule; and the leaf, the cotyledon, extended into a seed 
212. 4DCTABIOM. 
