PROPAGATION BY MEANS OF CUTTINGS 99 



bulb (Fig. 51), or each piece of it, and this is potted off as an 

 independent plant. 



Cuttings of the ordinary stems of some tuberiferous plants 

 will produce tubers instead of plants. This is the case with 

 the potato. The stem-cutting produces a small tuber near 

 its lower extremity, or sometimes in the axil of a leaf above 

 ground, and this tuber must be planted to obtain a new plant. 

 Fig. 102 (from an old print) shows a tuber-like branch on a 

 potato plant, borne a foot above the ground. Leaf-cuttings 

 of certain tuberiferous or bulbiferous 

 plants produce little tubes or bulbs in 

 the same way. (See the gloxinia, Fig. 

 110.) Hyacinth leaves, inserted in sand 

 in a frame, soon produce little bulblets at 

 their base, and these can be removed 

 and planted in the same way as the 

 bulbels described in Chapter III. 



Many tubers or tuber-like parts, that 

 have a very moist or soft interior and a 

 hard or close covering, vegetate more 

 satisfactorily if allowed to dry for a 

 time before planting. The pseudobulbs 

 of orchids, crowns of pineapples and 

 pads of cactuses are examples. Parts 

 of cactuses are sometimes allowed to lie FlG - 102 - Stem tuber of 



,, , . potato. 



in the sun two to four weeks before 



planting. This treatment dissipates the excessive moisture, 



and induces the formation of adventitious buds. 



Cuttings of roots 



Many plants can be multiplied with ease by means of short 

 cuttings of the roots, particularly all species that have a natural 

 tendency to " sucker" or send up sprouts from the root. Root- 



