THE PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 195 



in being without fleshy scales. The food is deposited in 

 the thickened stem. The corms of our flowering plants, 

 as the crocus, cyclamen and the like, are generally called 

 bulbs in commerce. 



355. The tuber, of which the common potato is the 

 most familiar example, differs from the corm in being the 

 end of an underground branch of the stem (114), instead 

 of developing in direct contact with the parent. It also 

 has more numerous buds (eyes) than the corm. 



356. Planting. Propagation from bulbs, bulblets, 

 corms and tubers is a very simple operation and consists 

 merely in planting these parts in the place where the 

 plants are desired. Tubers may be cut into pieces con- 

 taining one or more buds each, if desired. The rules 

 given for planting seeds (344) apply equally well here. 

 All should be stored for preservation in a cool, moderately 

 dry place, that is free from frost. They retain their 

 vitality but a single year. 



In the methods of propagation thus far considered, 

 with the sole exception of layering (349), advantage has 

 been taken of a natural mode of plant multiplication. 

 The skill of the cultivator, however much it may assist 

 the processes, is not necessary to their success, since wild 

 plants habitually increase by the same methods. We will 

 now consider a method which is less often illustrated in 

 nature, and in which the skill and care of the cultivator 

 are, as a rule, essential to its accomplishment. 



357. Propagation by sections of the plant. The 

 various methods of propagation in this division are alike 

 in the fact that a detached part of the parent plant, con- 

 taining living protoplasm, is placed for a time under 

 specially favorable conditions, in virtue of which the part 

 is enabled not only to live, but to perform its functions 



