WE AT TO PLANT 
37 
neither a greenhouse nor a hotbed, is to put them in small 
bottles filled with rather warm water; the bottle should 
then be hung to the window sash by tying a string around 
its neck. Wire will answer the same purpose. A padding 
of cotton-wool around the mouth of the bottle will prevent 
the water from evaporating, and by keeping up an even 
temperature will make the cuttings sprout sooner. When 
the roots are an inch long, the cuttings should be trans¬ 
planted, taking care to spread out the tiny rootlets just as 
they have grown in the water. 
If, when the cutting has attained the proper growth, 
the bottle be filled up with rich earth, which is left to dry 
off for two or three days, and the glass then broken, the 
young plant can be set out without disturbing its roots at 
all. This is recommended as the surest way of obtaining 
plants from cuttings. The “ saucer system ” is even easier, 
and has the recommendation of accommodating many cut¬ 
tings at a time, while the bottle holds but one. A saucer 
is filled with sand and kept constantly wet. In this wet 
sand the cuttings are inserted, and then placed in the full 
sunlight. This method is also particularly suited to gera¬ 
niums, and many other cuttings will root quickly in the 
same way. 
Geraniums that have bloomed during the winter may be 
made to do summer duty by cutting back their branches to 
the distance of several joints, and keeping them in the 
shade, with abundance of water, for a week or two. They 
can then be used as bedding plants, and will bloom luxuri¬ 
antly. 
The list of geraniums is too long to enumerate. Among 
them, the single varieties with white eyes and large flowers 
are very handsome, and a pure white one, Reine des vierges , 
is exquisite. A bed shaded from this, through the pale and 
rosy plants to the crimson giant of bottles, pleases the eye 
with its perfect harmony. The scarlets should stand by 
