248 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



called terminal, or in the axils of leaves, when they are said to be axillary : 

 and they are frequently found in both positions on the same plant. Those 

 which fall under neither of these categories are described as adventitious. 

 Adventitious buds apparently give rise to most of the leafy shoots on 

 old tree-trunks;* and not infrequently they are developed on roots. 

 Injury to the aerial parts of certain plants will induce the formation of 

 root-buds. The felling of a tree, for example, may be the occasion for a 

 whole crop of underground buds ; for the protoplasts in the root may - 

 and often do recover from the shock, and being diverted from their 

 regular work, they busy themselves in the formation of buds, from 

 which, in due course, arise new leaf-shoots, containing all the promise 

 and potency of future trunks. 



Occasionally adventitious buds are borne on 

 leaves, and to such the name epiphyllous has 

 been applied. If a leaf of one of the large-leaved 

 species of Begonia or of Gloxinia be planted in a 

 suitable soil, it will put out roots from its stalk, 

 and buds from various parts of the blade a fact 

 of which horticulturists take every advantage. 

 When it is desired to multiply any of these plants, 

 the nurseryman collects a number of the older 

 leaves, and having made incisions with a sharp 

 knife across the principal nerves on the under 

 side, he spreads the leaves on sand or coconut 

 fibre, and shades them carefully from the sun. As 

 a result of this treatment, bulbils presently appear 

 at the lower ends of the nerves, and when these 

 have attained to a certain size, they are removed 

 and placed in separate pots. Each bulbil is now 

 a distinct plant. 



Epiphyllous buds are sometimes met with 011 

 Liliaceous and Orchideous plants, as well as on 

 the Lady's-smock or Cuckoo-flower (Cardamine 

 pratensis) and the Celandine (Chelidoniiim majus) 

 but the plant which is most celebrated for its bud- 

 bearing leaves is probably Bryophyllum calycinum, 

 an Indian evergreen shrub of the House-leek 

 family, common enough nowadays in English 

 stovehouses, where it is grown as a curiosity. 

 The thick fleshy leaves of this plant (fig. 309) 

 need no artificial incisions to stimulate their 

 FIG. 304. INDIAKUBBER productiveness. Nature has already notched the 



(Ficus elastiea). 



Young leaf expanding and throwing Possibly, however, such buds are more otten axillary 



ofi scale. buds \vhich have lain dormant. 



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