43 



ARTIFICIAL METHODS BY WHICH PLANTS 

 ARE MULTIPLIED. 



ARTIFICIAL or vegetative means of propagation are resorted to by 

 cultivators in order to reproduce and multiply existing cultivated 

 forms of useful or ornamental vegetation in the shortest possible 

 time ; while in the case of cross-breeding or hybridising, provision 

 is made for the possible origination of new forms or varieties, 

 instead of -merely reproducing the parent plants. There are 

 many cases in which seed will not exactly reproduce the parent 

 plant, even when means are adopted to prevent cross-fertilisa- 

 tion ; and then recourse must be had either to cuttings, layers, 

 or division, by which a portion of the required individual is 

 secured, and means are used to induce it to throw out roots 

 and establish itself, as in the case of cuttings. Grafts are 

 cuttings neatly joined to a suitable stock, by which they receive 

 the benefit of roots already formed and in working order but 

 it is now known that grafts are frequently changed if worked 

 on another variety as a stock, and therefore cannot be said to 

 exactly reproduce the parent plant, -as is the case when propa- 

 gation is effected by cuttings, layers, or by dividing the original 

 in any other way. We shall, however, glance at the different 

 artificial methods of plant-propagation in their due order. 



PROPAGATION BY DIVISION. 



Division is the easiest and most generally adopted method 

 by which low-growing or spreading Alpine and herbaceous 

 plants are reproduced. Bulbs as Snowdrops, Narcissus, and 

 other gregarious kinds are also multiplied in the same way, 

 each separate bulb being a distinct individual plant. Although 

 the word multiplied is used here, it is scarcely applicable, since 

 no artificial multiplication of plants has really taken place. 

 The same number of plants existed in the clump before they 

 were divided ; only, by so dividing them, they afterwards, when 

 planted in fresh soil, develop themselves much more rapidly 



