198 
T1IE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Juhe 26, 1860. 
If the atmospheric temperature is so high that moisture is 
emitted from the leaves faster than it is supplied, they droop or 
flag, and the growth of the plant is suspended. If a cutting be 
placed in water, it imbibes at first more rapidly than a rooted 
plant of the same size, though this power rapidly decreases ; but 
if planted in the earth, it at no time imbibes so fast as the rooted 
plant, provided the soil is similarly moist; and this evidently 
because it has not such an extensive imbibing surface as is 
possessed by the rooted plant: consequently the soil in which a 
cutting is placed should be much more moist than is beneficial 
to a rooted plant of the same species ; and evaporation from the 
leaves should be cheeked by covering the cutting with a bell- 
glass, or either a Wardian or Waltonian Case would be still better. 
In cases where cuttings root with difficulty, and it is desirable 
to keep up the supply of moisture to them very regularly, a 
reservoir of water is formed by placing a small pot in the centre 
of a large one, the water being left to ooze slowly through the 
porous sides of the pot, as shown in tlio accompanying./??., in 
which « ia a No. 60-pot, with the bottom closed up with clay, 
put into one of larger size ; 
b, the drainage in the larger 
pot; c, the sand or soil in 
which the cuttiugs arc in¬ 
serted ; and d, the water in 
the inner pot, which is pre¬ 
vented from escaping through 
its bottom by the clay stop¬ 
ping. Mr. Eorsytl), the in¬ 
ventor of this mode of strik¬ 
ing cuttings, proposes it to be 
used with hardy plants, such 
as Pinks and Wallflowers, 
under hand-glasses or frames, 
in the open air, as well as for 
all manner of house plants. 
The advantages, he says, are 
the regularity of the supply of moisture, without any chance of 
saturation; the power of examining the state of the cuttings 
at any time without injuring them, by lifting out the inner pot; 
the superior drainage, so essential in propagating, by having such 
a thin layer of soil; the roots being placed so near the sides of 
both pots ; and the facility with which the plants, when rooted, 
can be parted for potting off, by taking out the inner pot, and 
with a knife cutting out every plant with Its ball, without the 
awkward but often necessary process of turning the pot upside j 
down to get out the cuttings. 
The temperature to which the leaves are exposed should be 
approaching the lowest the plant will endure. The warmer the 
soil within the range of temperature most suitable to the plant, 
the more active are the roots, and the more energetically are 
carried on all the processes of the vessels buried beneath the surface 
of the soil: 50° for the atmosphere, and between 65° and 75° for 
the bottom heat, are the most effectual temperatures for the 
generality of plants. 
The cutting should be as short as possible consistently with 
the objects in view. 
Three or four leaves, or even two, if the cutting be very short, 
are abundant. They elaborate the sap quite as fast as required, 
and are not liable to exhaust the cutting by super-exhalation of 
moisture. 
Cuttings taken from the upper branches of a plant (lower and I 
bear fruit the earliest, but those taken from near the soil are said j 
to root most freely. 
Cuttings which reluctantly emit roots, may be aided by ringing. 
The ring should be cut round the branch a few weeks before the 
cutting has to be removed; the bark should be completely re¬ 
moved down to the wood; and the section dividing the cutting j 
from the parent be made between the ring and the parent stem, 
so soon as a callus appears round the upper edge of the ring. 
Cuttings may often be made readily from the root of a plant, 
cuttings from the stem of which produce roots with difficulty. 
The root is the underground part of the stem, and in such in¬ 
stances emits leaves with more facility than the stem above 
ground can be induced to emit roots. 
The roots should be those of healthy plants, rather young than 
old, and, in general, from half an inch to one or two inches in 
thickness. They may be cut into lengths of from three to six or 
nine inches, and planted in free soil, with the tops just above the 
surface. Care must be taken that the upper end of the cutting, 
or that which was next the stem before it was separated from the 
plant, bo kept uppermost, for if that is not done, the cutting will 
not grow. This is the case even with cuttings of the Horse¬ 
radish and Sea-kale; but if cuttings of the roots of these and 
similar plants are laid down horizontally, and but slightly covered 
with soil, they will protude buds from what was the upper end 
before removal, and send out roots from the lower end. All 
Roses may be propagated by cuttings, and all fruit trees which 
are seedlings, or have been raised by cuttings or layers. The 
Robinia, Acacia, Gleditschia, Coronilla, Gymnocladus, and many 
other leguminosse; Ailantus, Catalpa, the Balsam, Ontario and 
Lombardy Poplars, the English Elm, the Mulberry, theMaclura, 
various other ligneous plants, and alljplanls whatever that throw 
up suckers, may be increased by cuttings of the roots; as may a 
great number of herbaceous perennials. The best time for taking 
the cuttings off is when the plants are in a dormant state, and all 
that is required is a clean cut at both ends.—( Loudon .) 
The importance of keeping the proper end of every cutting 
uppermost is further shown by the experiments of Mr. Knight. 
He planted in the autumn of 1802 twelve cuttings of the Sallow 
(Salix caprea), inverting one-half of them. The whole readily 
emitted roots, and grew with luxuriance; but their modes of 
growth were extremely different. In the cuttings which stood 
in their natural position, vegetation proceeded with most vigour 
at the poiuls most elevated ; but, in the inverted cuttiugs, it 
grew more and more languid as it became distant from the 
ground, and nearly ceased towards the conclusion of the summer, 
at the height of four feet. The new wood also, which was 
generated by these inverted cuttings, accumulated above the 
bases of the annual shoots. 
These facts appear to prove, that the vessels of plants are not 
equally calculated to carry their contents in opposite directions ; 
and afford some grounds to suspect that the vessels of the bark, 
like those which constitute the venous system of animals, (to 
which they are in many respects analogous), may be provided 
with valves, whose extreme minuteness has concealed them from 
observation.— (Knight's Papers, 107.) 
Mr. Loudon has classed the cuttings of plants usually in cul¬ 
tivation as follows :— 
“ Cuttings of Hardy Deciduous Trees and Shrubs —such as the 
Gooseberry, Currant, Willow, Poplar, &c., are easily rooted in 
the open garden, and the same may be said of the Yine and the 
Fig. As it is desirable that the Gooseberry and Currant should 
not throw up suckers, and should have a clean stem, all the buds 
are cut clean out, except three, or at most four, at the upper end 
of the cutting. The cuttings are planted erect, about six inches 
deep, and made quite firm by the dibber at their lower extremity. 
Cuttings of Honeysuckles, Syringas, Ampclopsis, Artemisia, 
Atragene, Atriplex, Baccliaris, Berchemia, Bignonia, Calycan- 
tlms, Ceanothus, Chenopodium, Clematis, China Roses, jig. 6, 
lhg. G.—A cutting of Rosa semperflorens, prepared and planted. 
and the like, are rather more difficult to root, and succeed best in 
a shady border and a sandy soil. 
“ Cuttings of Hardy Evergreens —such as the common Laurel, 
Portugal Laiu-el, Laurustinus, Arbor Vitse, evergreen Privet, and 
a few others, may be rooted in common soil in the open garden ; 
