MULTIPLICATION. 85 



plasm, while in the higher plants the male element is 

 formed from a different source from the female. 



Bud Formation. In the higher perennial plants, among 

 which are included many which come under the notice of the 

 farmer, asexual multiplication is effected hy means of huds. 

 When a bud is to be formed, growth in length is checked, 

 the stem or the branch ceases lengthening, the outer leaves 

 often become reduced to a scale-like condition, while the 

 inner, central, and younger ones remain in an undeveloped 

 state till the warmth of spring calls them into growth, 

 when they gradually lengthen into shoots, as in fruit and 

 timber trees. While the buds remain fixed to the trees 

 which gave them origin, their growth and development is 

 a process of extension or branching merely. Similarly 

 the process of "tillering" is simply due to the formation 

 and development of buds and shoots from the nodes or 

 knots at the base of the stem of the wheat, and is to be 

 regarded as a process of branching rather than of actual 

 multiplication. Such branches are formed more readily 

 in proportion as the seed is not buried deeply. The same 

 process of growth which is desirable in a cereal or in 

 clover is highly objectionable in the case of " weeds " 

 such as docks, thistles, and plantains. The imperfect 

 measures often taken to exterminate these only tend to 

 increase the mischief by bringing about the formation of 

 many new buds. When buds become detached naturally, 

 or are severed from the parent artificially and made to 

 grow as when a gardener takes a "slip," "buds" a 

 rose, or " grafts " a fruit tree the process is really one 

 of multiplication. So, when a farmer plants a " seed 

 potato," which yields him, it may be, forty fold, he really 



