PLANT PROPAGATION 



107 



roots are formed as in the case of slips, and when they are firmly 

 established, the connection with the parent plant may be severed, 

 and thus a new strawberry plant secured. Still another method 

 of propagating plants is known as layering, which may be accom- 

 plished in raspberry or blackberry plants by burying the tips of 

 branches in the soil, thus inducing the production of roots. The 

 new plant can then be severed from the parent. 



115. Tubers. New potato plants are commonly secured, not 

 by planting potato seeds, but by cutting into pieces a potato which 



FIG. 49. Potato plant and tubers grown from dark colored potato in 

 center. (U. S. Dept. Agriculture.) 



is a fleshy underground stem or tuber, each piece having one or more 

 "eyes," and putting these into the ground. In each eye is a bud, 

 and when this sprouts it develops stems and leaves above ground, 

 the new plant thus formed getting a considerable amount of 

 nutrition from the food stored in the tuber during the preceding 

 season. 



