56 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



throws off the perfect buds at a certain period ; an in 

 stance of this is afforded by some of our garden Lilies, 

 which throw off the little bulb-like buds which appear in 

 the axils of the lower leaves. The more common mode 

 of proceeding is as follows : Those buds which have been 

 formed near the surface of the soil, grow up into shoots 

 provided with leaves; but the shoots are long, slender 

 and delicate, the leaves too are stunted into little scales ; 

 in their axils, however, they develop strong buds, which 

 either in the same or in the following year take root, and 

 the slender shoot connecting them with the parent plant, 

 dying and decaying, they become free independent plants. 

 In this manner the strawberry soon covers a neglected 

 garden." * 



Upon the development of a cell in any living tissue, and 

 its power of reproducing other cells, and upon its function 

 of communicating by endosmosis and exosmosis with other 

 like cells, depend all our success in propagating vegeta- 

 bles, whether from seeds or buds, and parts containing 

 these. We must study the circumstances that favor the 

 development of cells, if we would be successful in prop- 

 agating plants. Each bud being considered an individu- 

 al, and capable, under favorable circumstances, of taking 

 on a separate existence, we can multiply any individual 

 variety indefinitely, and be sure of having the same quali- 

 ties of foliage and fruit that we admire in the original, 

 and that we may desire to propagate. This applies 

 equally to a group of buds, as in cuttings, grafts and 

 layers, etc. ; but, more wonderful still, there are cells 

 capable of developing buds where none existed before, and 



* The Plant, a Biography ; M. J. Schleiden, p. 68. 



