CHAPTER IV. PLANT MANIPULATION 



SECTION I. PLANT PROPAGATION 



340. Propagation, as the term is generally used in 

 plant culture, is the artificial multiplication of plants, 

 i. e., reproduction (16) encouraged or induced by the 

 knowledge, skill and care of the cultivator. 



Theoretically, any part of a plant containing living 

 protoplasm, with sufficient prepared food or tissue capa- 

 ble of preparing food (59), may under proper conditions 

 develop into a complete plant. But in practice, we have 

 not been able to fully demonstrate this theory; for exam- 

 ple, the roots and leaves of some plants have not been 

 induced to form buds. 



341. Plants are Propagated by Numerous Methods, but 

 only two of these are distinct in kind, viz., by seeds (or 

 spores), and by division of the plant. -In propagation by 

 seeds, the embryo of the seed (54) is the vital center 

 whence the new plant is developed. In propagation by 

 division, a living bud (128) from the parent plant, or a 

 bit of tissue capable of forming a bud, is substituted for 

 the embryo of the seed. In seed propagation, the result- 

 ing plant is the product of sexual fecundation (150), and 

 hence cannot be considered as strictly a part of the 

 parent. It does not necessarily resemble the parent 

 closely. In propagation by division, on the other hand, 

 the resulting plant may be regarded as simply a contin- 

 uation of the growth of the parent in a new location, and 

 generally closely resembles the parent. 



(181) 



