CUTTINGS. 
83 
CHAP. IV. j 
nourishment to be derived from sand, most 
cuttings do best with their lower end in 
earthy and with only sand about an inch, or 
two inches deep, at the top of the pot, to keep 
the stem dry, and to prevent it from rotting. 
The cutting, when prepared, should be bu¬ 
ried to about the second joint, and two or 
three joints with leaves should be left above 
the soil. A few leaves to elaborate the sap 
in the case of herbaceous plants, or evergreen 
trees and shrubs, are essential; for I have 
known very promising cuttings of petunias, 
which had been some weeks in the ground, 
and which had thrown out abundance of 
roots, entirely destroyed by some snails 
having eaten all the leaves; and I am told 
that the case is by no means an uncommon 
one. Cuttings of delicate plants are gene¬ 
rally covered with a bulb-glass pressed closely 
on the earth, to keep a regular degree of mois¬ 
ture round the plants, and to prevent too 
rapid an evaporation; but I have found cut¬ 
tings thus treated very apt to damp off, and 
have never succeeded in striking them, un¬ 
less I took off the glass to wipe it, every day. 
Cuttings of greenhouse plants, I have been 
g 2 
