122 
GARDENIAS. 
. advantages, as to be seldom employed ; while, on the other hand, 
cuttings can usually be had in unlimited number, and, under 
good treatment, soon make handsome specimens. They should 
be taken off as early in the season as it is possible to procure the 
young wood of sufficient length, pieces of three or four joints 
being the best. They should be cut quite from their origin, so 
as to retain a small portion of the parent stem at the base of the 
cutting, or, as it is technically called, “a heel;” this being 
squared off with a very sharp knife and the lower leaves removed, 
the cutting is ready for insertion in the pot, which should be 
filled to within an inch of the rim with very sandy peat, or leaf- 
mould and sand, mixed thoroughly, in equal quantities, filling 
up the remaining space with pure sand. Into this the cuttings 
are to be placed with a small dibble, at a distance of about an 
inch one from the other; and, when the pot is filled, dip it 
carefully into a vessel of water till the fluid runs evenly over the 
surface of the sand; then draw the pot quickly out, and the pas¬ 
sage of the water downwards draws the sand so tightly around 
the cuttings, that air is completely excluded, a point of the 
utmost consequence in all kinds of propagation. Cover them 
with a bell-glass, and plunge the pot to its rim in a steady bottom- 
heat of about 80°. It will of course be necessary to shade them 
from strong sun-light and to supply them moderately with w r ater, 
till in three or four weeks they will have protruded sufficient 
roots to warrant their removal into separate pots. The treat¬ 
ment through this second stage of the plants’ progress very 
closely resembles that of the mere cuttings. They should be 
potted in sandy peat, and the smallest pots should be used. The 
plants must be kept in a hot-bed frame, with a temperature of 
65° or 70°, maintaining about them a close, humid atmosphere 
by the liberal application of water, and shading the glass to re¬ 
duce the heat, rather than by the admission of the external air, 
as the exhaustion caused by the influx of a dry atmosphere would 
be more than the plants in their present delicate condition could 
bear. If the first part of the season has been taken advantage 
of to get thus far, the young plant’s future progress will be rapid, 
and by the end of the summer they will have thoroughly established 
themselves, and, by a few weeks’ exposure to a liberal aeration, 
will become ripened, and in a fit state to meet the winter. This 
