SOME PLANT BIOGRAPHIES. 197 



mately derived from a single seedling. Theoret- 

 ically, we must regard them all as severed parts 

 of one and the same plant, accidentally divided 

 from the main stem, since only the union of two 

 different parents can give us a totally distinct in- 

 dividual. But practically they are separate and 

 independent plants, competing with one another 

 thenceforth for food, soil, and sunshine. 



A great many plants are habitually propagated 

 in such indirect ways, as well as by the normal 

 method of flowering and seeding. Indeed, it is 

 difficult to separate the two processes of mere 

 growth, as shown in budding or branching, and 

 reproduction by subdivision, as shown in the 

 springing of saplings from the roots or stem, the 

 production of runners, the division of bulbs, and 

 the rooting of suckers. I will therefore give here 

 a few select instances of these frequent incidents 

 in the life-history of various species. 



The tiger-lilies of our gardens produce little 

 dark buds, often called bulbils, in the angles of 

 their foliage leaves. These buds at last fall off 

 and root themselves in the soil, forming to all ap- 

 pearance independent plants. Much the same 

 thing happens with many English wild-flowers. 

 For example, in the plant known as coral-root 

 (allied to the cuckoo-flower) little bud-bulbs are 

 formed in the angles of the leaves, which drop on 

 the damp soil of the woods where the plant grows, 

 and there develop into new individuals. In this 

 last-named case the plant seldom sets its fruit at 

 all, the reproduction being almost entirely carried 

 on by means of the bulbils. Such instances sug- 

 gest to us the pregnant idea that a seed is noth- 

 ing more than a bud or young shoot, to whose 

 making two separate parents have contributed. 



