32 NATURE TEACHING. 



example of the importance and the success of 

 this method than that continuously afforded 

 by fields of sugar-cane, the plants of which 

 are derived from pieces of cane stem, which, 

 planted in moist soi), throw out roots and 

 form new plants. Many food-plants and orna- 

 mental plants are propagated in this way. 

 Pieces of the stem are cut off and placed in 

 moist earth when new roots soon make their 

 appearance, usually from near the cut end of 

 the stem, and a new plant is obtained. Sugar- 

 cane, sweet-potato, cassava, roses, crotons, 

 geraniums and a number of other field and 

 garden plants are regularly propagated in this 

 manner. 



<5. Nor is it only from stems that roots 

 may be developed. Many leaves, when pluck- 

 ed from their parent plant and laid on moist 

 soil, will throw out roots and leaf-buds, so 

 that, in a little time, a number of young 

 plants may be raised from a single leaf. 

 This is well seen in many begonias. A weed, 

 very commonly found on the road-side, 

 known as the leaf-of-life, thick-leaf and a 

 variety of other names (Bryophyllum calyci- 

 num,) exhibits this habit in even a more 

 striking manner, for a leaf plucked from the 

 plant, and laid aside without any particular 



