1111 [lilMI 



CHAPTER IT. 





now PLANTS AHR l'ROPA(JATKI) OK MULTIPLIED IN NUMBERS. 



Skctiox I. — How Propagated from Buds. 



154. Plants not only grow so as to increase in size or extent, but also 

 multiply or increase their numbers. This thev do at such a rate that almost 

 any species, if favourably situated, an<l not interfered with by other plants or by 

 animals, would soon cover the whole face of a country adapted to its life. 



155. Plants multiply in two distinct ways, namely, by Buds and by Sc'ds. 

 All plants propagate by seeds, or by what answer to seeds. Besides this, a 

 great number of j)lants, mostly perennials, propagate naturally from buds. 



156. And almost any kind of plant may bo made to propagate from buds, by 

 taking suHicit^nt pains. The gardener nndtiplies plants artificially in this way, 



157. By Layers and Slips or Cuttings, in /<n/in:/ or laijerinrt, the gardener bends 

 a branch down to the ground, — sometimes cutting a notch at tlie bend, or remov- 

 ing a ring of bark, to make it strike loot the (]uicker, — and covers it with earth; 

 then, after it has rooted, he cuts off the connection with the parent stem. Thus he 

 makes artificial stolons (99.). Plants which strike root still more readily, such as 

 Willows, he propagates by cuttings or slips, that is, by pieces of stem, containing 

 one or more buds, thrust into the ground or into flower-pots. If kept moist and 

 warm enough, they will generally strike root from the cut end in the ground, and 

 develop a bud above, so forming a new plant out of a })iece of an old one. Many 

 woody plants, which will not so readily grow from slips, can often be nudtiplied 



158. By Grafting or Budding, in (jraftmg, the cutting is inserted into a stem or 

 branch of another plant of the same species, or of some species like it, as of the 

 Pear into the Quince or Apple ; where it grows and forms a branch of the stock 

 (as the stem used to graft on is called). The piece inserted is called at^cioii. In 

 grafting shrubs and trees it is needful to make the inner bark and the edge of 

 the wood of the scion correspond with these paits in the stock, when they will 

 grow together, and become as completely united as a natural branch is with its 

 parent stem. In huddiiui or rfiorulafhitj, a young bud, stripped from one fresh 

 plant, is inserted under the bark of another, usually in summer; there it 



