CHAPTER XXXIII 

 HOW PLANTS ARE SCATTERED AND PROPAGATED 



410. Dispersal of plants by roots and rootstocks. Some 

 of the highest spore plants, as the ferns, spread freely by means 

 of their creeping rootstocks, and the gardener who wishes 

 to get large strong ferns quickly often finds it the easiest plan 



to cut to pieces and 

 reset the rootstocks 

 of a well-estab- 

 lished plant. In 

 the walking fern 



(Fig. 273) the tip 

 FIG. 336. Plant of a black v & 



raspberry, showing one of the frond roots 



branch (stolon) with several and begins a new 



tips rooting jAant. The student has learned (in 



After Beal Chapters IV and vi) that roots and 



underground stems of many kinds may" serve to reproduce 

 the plant. Either roots or rootstocks may travel considerable 

 distances horizontally in the course of their growth and then 

 shoot up and produce a new plant, which later becomes in- 

 dependent of the parent. The sedges (Fig. 44) are excellent 

 illustrations of this process, and trees like the common locust 

 and the silver-leaf poplar become great nuisances in the 

 neighborhood of lawns and gardens by sending up sprouts 

 in many places. When growing wild, such trees as these 



436 



