KADICATION OF DIFFERENT PLANTS. 29 



seeds alone, and have always a true root easily known 

 by its simplicity of structure, by the absence of buds, 

 and by the comparatively short range of its fibres, the 

 turf- and meadow plants are propagated by shoots and 

 runners of a peculiar nature, and in many of them 

 propagation is independent of the formation of seed. 



As the strawberry, which will in a very short time 

 cover extensive tracts of ground, sends forth from the 

 stock above the root-bulb shoots in the shape of run- 

 ners, which creeping along the ground, and producing 

 here and there buds and roots, grow up as independent 

 plants, so the perennial weeds, among which are here 

 included the meadow and pasture plants, spread in a 

 similar manner by corresponding underground organs. 

 The creeping roots of the couch-grass (Triticum repens), 

 the sea lyme-grass (Ely mm arenarius\ the trefoil (Tri- 

 folium pratense), the common toad-flax (Linaria vul- 

 garis), propagate their plants by suckers in all direc- 

 tions from the mother-plant. The smooth-stalked 

 meadow-grass (Poa pratensis) is propagated by a 

 mother-stock, consisting of true roots, rooted runners, 

 and creeping suckers ; rye grass (Loliwn) puts forth 

 root-suckers in a stiff soil, and prostrate stolons in loose 

 ground. Cat's-tail grass (Phleum) is found sometimes 

 with bulbous, sometimes with fibrous many-headed 

 roots, having a tendency to creep and to form mother- 

 stocks. Timothy-grass grows stalk in the first year ; 

 in the second, it forms sometimes bulbous, sometimes 

 fibrous many-headed mother-stocks, which send forth 

 creepers in all directions. In the same way, meadow- 

 grass spreads partly by budding suckers, partly by 

 stolons. 



On comparing the vital processes in annual, bien- 

 nial, and perennial plants, we find that the organic work 

 in perennials is principally directed to the formation of 

 the root. 



The seed of asparagus sown during autumn, in a 

 fertile soil, will produce next year, from spring to the 

 end of July, a plant about a foot high, the stem, twigs, 

 and leaves of which from that time forward show no 



