TEACHER'S LEAFLET No. 16. 



CUTTINGS AND CUTTINGS. 



BY L. H. BAILEY. 



ERHAPS no subject connected with the growing 

 of plants awakens so much popular wonder and 

 inquiry as their propagation by means of cut- 

 tings and grafts. We assume that propagation 

 by means of seeds is the natural way, and there 

 fore do not wonder, notwithstanding it is won- 

 derful. We assume that propagation by cuttings 

 is wholly unnatural, and therefore never cease 

 to wonder, notwithstanding that is less wonderful tlian the other. 

 To common minds, common things are not wonderful. Mere com- 

 monplace familiarity takes away the charm, for such minds have no 

 desire of inquiry. The well-trained mind goes beneath the surface, 

 and wonders at everything ; and this wonder, grown old and wise, 

 is the spirit of science. 



A plant does not have a definite number of parts, as an animal 

 does. It may have ten branches or fifty. Each of these branches 

 may do what every other branch does — produce leaves, flowers, 

 fruits, seeds. It is not so with the higher animals, for in them each 

 part may do something which some other part cannot do ; if the 

 part is a leg, it runs ; if an ear, it hears. Each part serves the whole 

 animal ; and it cannot reproduce the animal. But in the plant, each 

 branch lives for itself ; it grows on the parent stock ; or, if it is 

 removed, it may grow in the soil. And if it grow in the soil, it is 

 relieved of competition with other branches and grows bigger ; it 

 makes what we call a plant. 



Having thus bewildered my reader, I may say that a bit of a plant 

 stuck into the ground stands a chance of growing ; and this bit is a 

 cutting.' Plants have preferences, however, as to the kind of a bit 

 which shall be used, but there is no way of telling what this prefer- 

 ence is except by trying. In some instances this preference has not 



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