VEGETATIVE REPRODUCTION 43 
are reproduced normally by them, it is probably 
familiar enough to most of us that a great number of 
species have another method as well, a method, too, 
which has nothing whatever to do with seeds, nor 
is there anything corresponding to it in the human 
world. 
There are, however, certain animals, lowly in the 
scale of creation, that increase in number by budding, 
a familiar example being afforded by the greenfly on 
our roses and other garden plants. 
When we spray them with an insecticide it is true 
that we kill them, but we do not damage the bud 
within, hence we find after a few hours that the 
triumphant youngsters have made their way through 
the film of soft soap and quassia that covers the body 
of the dead parent, and so it is necessary to repeat 
the operation before they, too, have formed an 
internal bud, if we are to rid our treasures of this 
troublesome parasite. 
The green Hydra, a small creature that can be 
found in the water among the Duckweed in our ponds, 
is another example of increase by budding. It can be 
divided into two or more pieces, each of which will 
replace by growth the parts that have been cut away 
by us or bitten off by some natural enemy, as the case 
may be. 
We commonly practise the art of increasing our 
stock of Geraniums by “ cuttings,”’ or pieces of the 
stem bearing leaf buds, and in Nature a great deal of 
reproduction is effected by buds of one sort or another 
that ultimately become detached from the stock and 
grow up as independent plants. 
Reproduction by this means is known as vegetative 
propagation. 
