PLANTS THAT WALK 3 



and develop into new bushes. They are much too 

 impatient for that; they know a quicker way. They 

 walk; and as they walk, they develop new plants. 

 The mother bush selects a good healthy branch; 

 she reaches out and carefully bends it down to the 

 earth; and down into the ground she sends little 

 roots from the branch. The roots collect the nour- 

 ishment, send it up into the branch, and, lo, the 

 branch itself is soon a flourishing currant bush, 

 ready to take another step in its walk by sending 

 out a branch of its own to grow rootlets and de- 

 velop into still another bush. 



In the same way, white clover, strawberries, sweet 

 potatoes, Wandering Jew, and many forms of 

 grasses, walk by planting others like themselves. 

 Some of them send out "runners" which walk along 

 the ground, like the common verbena, trailing ar- 

 butus, numerous grasses, and trailing lycopo- 

 diums; and each new plant or offshoot, as soon 

 as it begins to grow, sends out its own runners. 

 Thus new plants are continually made. 



Skilled gardeners and farmers thoroughly under- 

 stand how to cover certain parts of potato 

 vines, for instance, with layers of soil, and later, 

 by cutting the vine near where it has taken root, 

 to multiply the number of plants. 



Some plants have "suckers" branches that 



