150 LUTHER BURBANK 



Multiplication by Bulb Division 



The habit of storing nutritious matter in its 

 bulb, and the further habit of producing col- 

 lateral bulbs from which new stalks will grow, 

 so that the plant multiplies indefinitely in this 

 way, is characteristic, as everyone knows, of a 

 large number of plant families, many of which 

 have come within the scope of our studies. 



The phenomenon of bulb division, indeed, is 

 so familiar to everyone who has experimented in 

 the vegetable or flower garden as to take its 

 place among those familiar matters of fact that 

 call for no comment. 



lYet if we consider the matter thoughtfully it 

 will be clear that this habit of putting forth 

 offsets from a bulb as the basis for the develop- 

 ment of new plants is an altogether extraordi- 

 nary phenomenon — quite as mysterious, indeed, 

 as the production of the seeds that bear the com- 

 plex hereditary factors and transmit the quali- 

 ties of a race of plants from one generation to 

 another. 



There is no fundamental difference between 

 the production of new plants by bulb division 

 and their production by seed, except that in the 

 latter case there is opportunity for the union of 

 two different racial strains, one borne by the 



