COLONISATION BY OTHER METHODS. 59 



of the original, can be produced in a very short 

 time. 



Thus, for at least 2000 years the sugar cane has 

 been invariably grown by means of " suckers " springing 

 from the base of the original stem. The cane sugar is 

 stored up in the stem as a reserve of food for the 

 production of flowers. Just before flowering it becomes 

 converted into the comparatively useless grape sugar. 

 The priests in India, probably to discourage delay 

 in cutting the canes, invented a superstition that, if the 

 proprietor saw the flowers, he would himself die within 

 the year ; his wife and children would beg their bread, 

 and his entire property be confiscated. 



As a matter of fact, it is now difficult to get the cane 

 to reproduce itself by seed ; and it is only within recent 

 years that the attempt to do so has been successful. 

 The plant has, in fact, become so weakened by 

 continual cultivation without sexual fertilisation, that 

 it is necessary to start a new form. 



The last consideration brings out clearly an important 

 point. Whenever a plant is formed by any one of 

 these " cutting-" or " layering "-methods, it is simply 

 a part of the original individual, and not a new 

 one. The present sugar-cane plantations are occupied, 

 therefore, by portions of one original individual, which 

 is at least 2000 years old, so there is no wonder 

 that it is showing symptoms of senile decay. 



Even the Potato, after some 400 years of cultivation, 

 is becoming delicate, and seedlings have frequently to 

 be produced with a view to hardening its constitution. 

 Thus new sorts are introduced, such, for example, as 

 the "Early Rose" of the United States. 



The methods of non-sexual reproduction depend 

 on the formation of special roots, branches, buds, or 



