CHAPTER X 

 VARIOUS WAYS OF GROWING PLANTS 



WE have already studied the commonest way to grow 

 plants. In this study we spoke as if all plants can be grown 

 from seed satisfactorily, and will make seed satisfactorily 

 before they die. Besides, we spoke as if a root always has 

 branches, or a stem is always plainly a stem, or a leaf is 

 always evidently a leaf. It was convenient to imagine all 

 this, which is true of many plants. But it is not true of all. 



For example, roots may become thick and fleshy, like those 

 of the carrot and beet, which seldom branch at all. Or part 

 of the stem may become a tendril ; or a stem may live under- 

 ground and form swellings, called tubers ; or it may even seem 

 to be entirely missing. And the leaf may take the strangest 

 of shapes, from the tiny scale of the asparagus to the thick- 

 stemmed leaf of the chard, or the closely curled inner leaf of 

 the cabbage. 



But, what is of still more importance, some plants (like the 

 potato) make seed very imperfectly, or almost not at all. 

 Other plants take two years, or still longer, to make seed. 

 Again, the seeds of some plants do not produce plants that 

 are very much like the parents. It pays to grow peas, beans, 

 asters, zinnias, and most annuals (or yearly plants) from seed, 

 because the new plants are much the same as the parents. 

 But the seeds of the peony among flowering plants, and of 

 the potato among vegetables, cannot be depended on to 

 produce a crop of new plants that are closely like each other. 

 All crops vary somewhat, but these vary widely. 



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