214 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 3, I860. 
that is written on the reversion of crossed species and varieties, 
and the whole theory of mules, are absolutely and altogether the 
very reverse of innumerable facts within my own personal know¬ 
ledge.” 
Every year brings fresh facts to our knowledge sustaining the 
opinion that the species both of animals and plants originally 
created were comparatively very few. Diversity of climate and 
of food during the lapse of ages lias wrought changes which 
naturalists find great difficulty in explaining, so they cut the 
Gordian knot by concluding that each changed form was ori¬ 
ginally so created. That in many instances they are wrong has 
been proved. Wheat has been shown to be an iEgilops altered 
by cultivation; the British Queen is a descendant from the 
Wood Strawberry; the Bihston Pippin from the Crab. Many a 
plant on a mountain side differs so much from the same plant 
growing in a stream at that mountain’s base, that in more than 
one instance botanists have described them as distinct species. 
We think the time is not far distant when hosts of species will 
be obliterated, and many genera merged into a few others by 
some modern Linnaeus.] 
Fig. 13. 
Fig. 14. 
A 
THE SCIENCE OF GAEDENING. 
(Continued from page 200.) 
The cuttings from common deciduous trees—such as the 
Eilbert, Gooseberry, Currant, &c., 
are, as in fig.l?>, of the previous year’s 
shoots, and cut just above and just 
below a bud. 
A Cutting with a Heel (fig. 14) 
is that in which the shoot is taken 
off with a slice of the branch from 
which the root sprang. 
A Strangulated Cutting is often 
employed by French gardeners when 
a common cutting from the same 
tree produces roots with difficulty, 
wire ligature is twisted tightly round the shoot immediately 
below a bud. (Fig. 15). This causes a swelling 
above the ligature by checking the descent of the 
sap ; and when, after the lapse of one or two years, 
the swelling has become large, the cut is made 
immediately below it, and the cutting treated as 
usual. 
One-hud Cutting (fig. 16) is often 
employed for raising Grape Vines, 
Mulberries, Hollyhocks, &c., and is 
called “ Raising from an eye.” In 
the Vine and Mulberry, a shoot of 
the previous year is cut into lengths 
of about two inches with a bud in 
the centre; but in the Hollyhock 
it is usual to split these one-bud 
lengths, and to extract the pith. 
The following are the directions 
given by Mr. Roberts ( Cottage Gar- 
He says, in June or early in July (as the season 
best suits) cut a branch off the plant or plants selected into as 
many pieces as there are eyes, or shoots, allowing a space of two 
inches on each side of the eye. Cut them into such lengths, and 
slit them down the middle, removing all the pith from the inside; 
put them immediately into some soil or earth in a shady place 
(say the north side of your garden) about an inch deep, keeping 
the eye above the earth; water and cover with a hand-glass, and 
if hot weather, Water well over the glass, but do not disturb it. 
In six weeks there will be nice young plants, which should be 
planted out early in November in such places as required. They 
will blossom freely in the June following. 
Some plants may be successfully propagated by means of the 
leaves; and among those whose numbers are thus most com¬ 
monly increased are the Cacti, Gesnerre, Gloxinia;, and other 
fleshy-leaved plants. A few years since, the suggestion was re¬ 
vived that the majority of plants may be thus propagated—a 
suggestion first made by Agricola at the commencement of the 
last century. He states that M. Mandirola had raised a Lemon 
tree in this mode; and then concludes, rather too rashly, “ that 
all exotic leaves may at any time be converted into trees.” Since 
that, was written, in 1721, it is certain that plants have been 
raised from leaves that previously had been considered totally 
Fig. 15. 
dener, i. 173). 
Fig. 16. 
incapable of such extension. Thus M. Neumann succeeded with 
the Theophrasta latifolia; and, going a step further, he even 
bisected a leaf, and raised a leaf from each half. Mr. Ivnight 
has also recorded (in the “ Horticultural Transactions ” of 1822) 
that leaves of the Peppermint (Mentha piperita), without any 
portion of the stem upon which they had grown, lived for more 
than twelve months, increased in size, nearly assumed the cha¬ 
racter of evergreen trees, and emitted a mass of roots. 
In 1839 M. Neumann, of the Paris Garden, seeing the Theo¬ 
phrasta latifolia (Clavija ornata, D. Don) growing so well from 
cuttings of leaves, Conceived the idea of cutting several of them 
in two, and treating them in the same manner as entire leaves. 
Accordingly, he cut a leaf in two, and planted both parts in the 
same pot, treating them exactly alike. In about three months 
the lower half of the leaf (fig. 17) had made roots, but the upper 
Fig. 17.—The lower half of the 
leaf of Theophrasta rooted 
and sending up a shoot. 
Fig. 18.—The upper half of 
Theophrasta rooted and 
sending up a shoot. 
half had none; though, some time afterwards, when it became 
necessary to separate the cuttings, M. Neumann found that the 
upper part of the leaf had also made roots (fig. 18), but that these 
roots were much shorter than those of the lower half. The root¬ 
ing of the two halves of a leaf of the Theophrasta, so hard and 
dry as every one knows these leaves to be, appearing to him an 
interesting circumstance, he continued to pay attention to them 
for six months. He wished to ascertain if they would produce 
buds as in other cases ; for he was in hopes they would, as he 
remarked that the roots increased in the pet. At last in the 
seventh month, for the first time, he saw at the extremity of his 
two half-leaves, buds appearing, as well formed as those proceed¬ 
ing from the base of the petiole of an entire leaf. In June, 1840, 
these two cuttings had become beautiful and healthy plants, 
which it was impossible to distinguish from others produced 
from entire leaves. 
We see from this experiment that it requires double the time 
to produce a bud from the upper part of the leaf that it requires 
for the lower half to produce one; and that in propagation by 
leaves, it is not always necessary to take the heel, or lower end 
of the petiole, with the leaf, which sometimes injures and deforms 
the shoots. M. Neumann’s experiment proves further, that 
wherever cambium can be formed, there are at the same time a 
number of utricules, or germs of the buds formed, from which a 
new plant will be developed when the parent is placed in favour¬ 
able circumstances. From this circumstance, in short, we may 
conclude that nil the veins may serve for the reproduction of 
plants. The dots in fig. 18 show the parts of the upper half¬ 
leaf which were cut off to allow of its being put into a small pot; 
and this proves that it is only the middle rib (or prolongation of 
the petiole), which is required for reproduction. Half-leaves of 
various plants have been rooted in charcoal in Germany. 
The plants usually raised by leaves in British gardens are com¬ 
paratively few, and chiefly Gesneras, Gloxinias; bulb-bearing 
leaves, such as Bryophyllum ; some succulents, such as Semper- 
vivum, and few others. Leaves of the Orange, the Hoya, the 
Aueuba, the Camellia, Ficus elasticus, the Clianthus, the common 
Laurel, and a few more, are occasionally rooted, but more as 
matter for curiosity than for the purpose of increase. 
Propagat ion by the leaves of bulbs has been successfully effected 
