168 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



ones ; that is to say, they creep along the ground, end 

 each in a rosette of leaves, and take root. The pic- 

 ture shows us a first tuft, more vigorous than the 

 others. From the axil of one of its leaves starts a 

 runner whose terminal bud has developed into a 

 small plant already provided with roots of some 

 vigor. A second runner sprung from this plant 

 bears a third rosette whose leaves are beginning to 



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unfold. After sending out an indefinite number of 

 similar runners the mother plant finds herself sur- 

 rounded with young suckers, established here and 

 there, as many as the season and the nature of the 

 soil permit. At first these suckers are attached to 

 the mother plant by the runners, and sap flows from 

 the old plant to the young ones ; but sooner or later 

 there is a severance of ties, the runners dry up and 

 are henceforward useless, and each offshoot, prop- 

 erly rooted, becomes a separate strawberry vine. 

 Here we find, without any of man's ingenuity or 

 skill, all the details of layering; and it was un- 

 doubtedly the natural process that suggested the ar- 



