XX INTRODUCTION. 



system of life, or a bud, from a given plant, placing it in 

 due heat and moisture, , and surrounding it with fitting 

 food, and thus causing it to grow as a solitary indivi- 

 dual, instead of as one of the community to which it 

 originally belonged. 



Striking from Cuttings is a slight modification of 

 the last method. Instead of taking a single bud, a 

 stem containing two, three, or more buds, is placed in 

 circumstances fitted for the maintenance of its life. In 

 this case, the chances of success are increased by the 

 additional number of buds which are the subject of 

 experiment. That bud which is the nearest the bottom 

 of the cutting emits its roots at once into the earth, and 

 so establishes a communication between the general 

 system of the cutting and the medium from which its 

 food is to be derived. The other buds, by pushing their 

 stems upwards into light, attract the nutriment absorbed 

 by the roots, and so stimulate the latter to increased 

 action. Ultimately, the roots of all the buds descend 

 between the bark and the wood until they reach the 

 earth, into which they finally pass, like those of the first 

 bud. There is another circumstance which renders the 

 operation of striking plants from cuttings less precarious 

 than from eyes. In both cases, the buds have, at 

 the outset, to feed upon matter in their vicinity, 

 until they shall have formed roots which are capable 

 of absorbing food from the earth ; but in eyes, the 

 nutritive matter can exist only in such portions of t}ie 

 stem as may have been cut away with themselves ; while, 

 on the other hand, in cuttings, the stem itself forms an 

 important reservoir of nutriment. This is a consider- 

 ation, the practical importance of which will be obvious 

 to every cultivator. As it is from the buds alone of 

 cuttings that roots proceed, it follows, that in cases of 

 difficulty, when plants strike unwillingly, any thing 

 which may facilitate the immediate introduction of roots 



