84 



PLANT PROPAGATION 



and a new plant is produced. When the cane reaches the 

 ground the stimulus of the moist soil causes small protuber- 

 ances, the beginning of the roots, to form. As the contact 

 of the cane with the soil becomes closer, the roots develop 

 more rapidly and as they become stronger and better estab- 

 lished the tip of the cane is drawn closely to the ground. 

 The following spring and occasionally the same season a 

 leafy shoot appears from this tip and, nourished by the root, 

 it rapidly grows into a new plant. Through decay and 

 subsequent division of the old stem the young plant becomes 

 detached and the new plant begins an independent existence. 



FIG. 27. Mound layering. 



Layer. A layer is a stem of a plant bent to the ground 

 and allowed to take root without being detached from the 

 parent plant. It is nothing more than an artificial stolon. 

 Occasionally the young shoots from the parent are hilled 

 up with soil about their base where they take root. A 

 layer differs from a stolon only in the implication that man 

 has taken a hand in the process of reproduction to aid nature 

 by either bending the branch to the ground or by hilling up 



