CHAPTER V 

 OTHER METHODS OF PROPAGATION 



30. Vegetative propagation. Plants can be propagated 

 in other ways than by their seeds, and advantage is often taken 

 of this fact. Among the advantages secured are a more 

 rapid production of plants and a greater certainty that the 

 plants will come true to type. The greater rapidity of pro- 

 duction is secured by eliminating the germination and seed- 

 ling stages, and starting with considerable maturity. In 

 the case of plants of long periods, as shrubs and trees, this 

 shortening of the period between the start and the crop is of 

 great importance. Greater certainty as to the character 

 of the plants produced arises from the fact that a seed has 

 come from the act of fertilization, and this usually involves 

 the characters of two parents; while the other methods of 

 propagation involve the vegetative continuance of one indi- 

 vidual. For example, no one thinks of raising potatoes from 

 seeds to secure a crop. By using the tubers (thickened under- 

 ground stems), new potato plants are secured much more 

 speedily, and the new tubers are like the parent tuber. In 

 addition to seed propagation, therefore, it is necessary to 

 consider vegetative propagation. The principal kinds of 

 vegetative propagation may be included under three heads : 

 (1) cuttings, (2) layering, (3) grafting. 



31. Cuttings. By this is meant that cuttings or " slips," 

 usually of the stem, can be used to produce new plants. A 

 stem is made up of nodes (joints) and internodes (the parts 

 of the stem between the nodes). The nodes have the power 

 to produce lateral members, which ordinarily are leaves and 

 branches ; but when nodes are put in the proper soil condi- 



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