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AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



from their leaves. The gloxinia leaf makes buds freely, 

 which develop flowers next season. It is from the ribs of 



Leaf Throwing oat Roots. 



the leaf taken from the plant when in the full vigor of 

 growth that roots develop. If several plants are required 

 from one leaf, the mid rib on the under surface of the 

 leaf should be notched in several places. This under 

 surface is then placed on the soil, the mid-rib slightly 

 pressed in and pegged down to keep it firm without any 

 soil over it. At each fracture of the rib a little callus 

 develops and quickly throws out roots. 



Leaves and Buds. Leaves of the rose, camelia, the 

 orange family, and others strike when treated as for leaf 

 growth in moisture and warmth, but although they make 

 roots under such favourable conditions they do not seem to 

 have the power to form buds. Few plants can form another 

 of its species without first organising a bud the necessary 

 step in the process of multiplication. Buds spring exclu- 

 sively from the soft pulpy or cellular matter that constitutes 

 the flesh of plants, and not from their solid woody parts. 

 This cellular matter is formed by nature out of organisable 

 fluids largely formed in the leaves, hence it follows that 

 leaves are really the great agencies of propogation in any 

 case, whether cuttings, layers, or other methods of 

 multiplication are followed. 



