CHAP. IV.] SUCKERS. 59 



rose, the raspberry, the lilac, the English elm, 

 &c.; offsets are only formed on bulbs; and 

 runners are only thrown out by strawberries, 

 brambles, and a few other plants; and thus these 

 modes of propagation are extremely limited in 

 practice. No plants produce suckers but those 

 that send out strong horizontal under-ground 

 stems; as the sucker is in fact a bud from one 

 of these steins which has pushed its way up 

 through the soil, and become a distinct plant. 

 As this plant generally forms fibrous roots of 

 its own, above its point of junction with the 

 parent tree, it may in most cases, when it is 

 thought necessary to remove it, be slipped off 

 the parent, and planted like a rooted cutting. 

 As, however, the nourishment it can expect to 

 derive from its own resources will be at first 

 much less than what it obtained from its parent, 

 it is customary, when a sucker is removed, to 

 cut in its head, to prevent the evaporation from 

 its leaves being greater than its roots can sustain. 

 Sometimes, when the parent is strong, part of 

 the horizontal under-ground stem to which the 

 sucker was attached is cut off and planted with 

 the young plant. 



Suckers of another kind spring up from the 

 collar of the old plant, and when removed are 

 always slipped or cut off with the fibrous roots 

 that they may have made attached. Offsets 

 are young bulbs which form on the edge of the 

 root-plate of the old bulb, and merely require 

 breaking off, and planting in rich light soil. 

 Runners are shoots springing from the crown 

 or collar of the plant, which throw out roots at 

 their joints, and which only require dividing 



