REPRODUCTION 



183 



one plant may be united so intimately to another by budding or 

 grafting that it thrives and grows as an integral part of the plant 

 to which it has been transferred. By use of these methods of 

 artificial reproduction the horticulturalist succeeds in producing 

 enormous numbers of individuals from a single plant. One 

 particular advantage of such a procedure is that it insures a 

 high degree of uniformity among the offspring, since each one of 



Fig. 96. — Asexual reproduction in the strawberry. Creeping stem (runner or 

 stolon, s) from the end of which a new strawberry plant is growing. Sexual 

 reproduction, by flowers and fruit, is also shown on the same plant. 



them is in fact a portion of the original individual. All true 

 Concord grape vines or Baldwin apple trees, for example, are 

 simply detached parts of the original vine or tree in which the 

 variety originated. 



In many plants, reproduction of this sort is a constant accom- 

 paniment of the slow spread and dispersal of the vegetative parts 

 which is continually taking place (Fig. 96). Thus a grass plant 

 may become established in one spot and gradually extend its 

 area until it forms a considerable patch of turf. Portions of 

 this, through accident or decay, become separated from one 



