CHAPTER III 



PROPAGATION BY MEANS OF SEPARATION AND 

 DIVISION 



SEEDS are not the only parts or organs that naturally detach 

 themselves from the parent plant and serve as the beginning 

 of new individuals, as we have learned in Chapter I; and 

 many plants are capable of being divided at the root into two 

 or more parts or plants. The "bulb catalogue" of the seeds- 

 men indicates how extensive is this asexual means of multi- 

 plication. 



1 . SEPARATION 



Separation, or the multiplication of plants by means of 

 naturally detachable vegetative organs, is effected by means 

 of bulbs, bulbels, bulb-scales, bulblets, corms, cormels, tubers 

 and sometimes by buds. 



Bulbs of all kinds are specialized buds. They are made up 

 of a short and rudimentary axis closely incased in transformed 

 and thickened leaves or bulb-scales. These thickened parts 

 may be stored with nutriment used in subsequent growth. 

 Bulbs occur in plants accustomed to a long period of inactivity. 

 Many bulbous plants are peculiar to dry and arid regions, 

 where growth is impossible in long intervals. A bulb, therefore, 

 is a more or less permanent and compact leaf -bud, usually occu- 

 pying the base of the stem under ground and emitting roots 

 from its lower part. Bulbs are conveniently divided into two 

 great classes the scaly, or those composed of narrow and 

 mostly loose scales, as in the lily, and laminate or tunicate, or 



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