The Garden Under Glass

208 THE GARDEN UNDER GLASS essential. Long experience has taught us that the cut should be straight and not slanting, that it should be clean and not jagged, that it should be made immediately below a joint yet not so close that the leaf would drop off. The Diagram 42.,—Propagation by Cuttings : 1. Shows where to cut the growths and the leaves to trim off. a. Cutting of hard-wooded plant where the point is often cut off. 3. A difficult subject cut half-way through and allowed to remain thus. 4. Ordinary way of making the cut. 5. A slanting cut—not advised. 6. A heel of the old wood lefl on. 7. Base of carnation cutting split to ensure easier rooting. 8. A good setting stick with blimt end. 9. A bad setting stick, the end being too pointed. 10. Several cuttings put into the same hole to form a bushy plant, ti. A space left at the base of the cuttings, the result of a pointed dibber—bad practice. 12. How to take a cutting with a heel. leaf, however, must be pinched off, as well as any others which would be Underground when the cutting is duly in-serted. If left they would probably rot and perhaps cause the cutting to damp. About one-third of the length of a cutting is the right depth to bury it. The surface of the soil should previously be sprinkled with sharp, dry sand,