d: they may also be propagated, by enveloping a joint of a
growing shoot lightly with moss; the moss should be kept continually
moist, and roots will soon be emitted into it, and when enough are
produced, the plant may be detached.

Either of these methods of propagation will secure not only healthy, but
fruitful plants, in a short space of time; and this latter point will be
found to be one of no small advantage. The principal objection which may
be urged against their adoption, is that they necessarily involve a
process of transplantation, which under any circumstances, and however
carefully performed, must be regarded as an evil rather than otherwise. It
may be thought that the _check_ arising from transplantation may do good,
by preventing too great luxuriance of growth, and thereby tending to
accelerate fruitfulness; but even if this result may be apparently
produced by such means, it is surely far more natural to check the plants,
by withholding a portion of food, rather than by mutilating the organs by
which their food is conveyed to them, and then actually placing them in a
position where food is still more abundantly supplied than before. It is
very questionable however, how far what is called a "check" is justifiable
as a means of inducing fructification; for if fructification be the most
perfect state at which a plant can arrive, there does not seem to be much
rationality in adopting any such means as a "check" in bringing about
this perfection of developement. A _check_ applied as a means of
accelerating maturity, can only be regarded as an expedient, rendered
necessary by previous defective treatment.

The most commonly practised as well as the most natural method of
propagation, is by seeds, and this will generally be found to be also the
best method, if the conditions required by its adoption can be properly
carried out. There is however, one decided disadvantage attendant on the
raising of Cucumber plants intended for winter forcing from seeds; and
hence in a great measure arises the apparent superiority of propagating by
extension: the disadvantage consists in the exceedingly succulent and lax
nature of the tissue of the young plants; owing to that natural principle,
by which their increase and extension is most especially provided for
during the infant stages of their existence: the result is, that in
consequence of the deficiency of light and solar heat, which are the grand
agents of vegetable fructif