Buds and Stems. 



71 



We might expect, then, that a bud would have all of the 

 potentialities possessed by the entire plant. How true this 

 is, is shown by the results of the process known as bud- 

 ding, which is practiced by nurserymen for the propaga- 

 tion of various sorts of plants. 



55. Propagation by Budding. — In this process, a bud, 

 together with the bark and a very thin layer of the wood 

 just beneath it, is re- 

 moved from the plant 

 which it is desired to 

 propagate (a, Fig. 28). 

 A longitudinal slit about 

 an inch long is made in 

 the bark of the plant on 

 which the bud is to be 

 grown, and at the top 

 of the longitudinal slit 

 a cross slit is made so 

 that the bark may be 

 separated from thewood. 

 The bud is then slipped 



under the bark and tied into position (c, Fig. 28). After a 

 few weeks the bud will have grown to its foster stem, and 

 the string which binds it down is cut away. 



This process is usually done in the summer or early fall, 

 and the bud is not expected to grow until the following 

 spring, when all the branches of the foster plant are cut 

 away, and it alone is allowed to develop. The shoot which 

 grows from the bud is found to possess the characters of 

 the plant from which it was taken, and the branches which 

 later spring from it have the same characters. In short, 

 all of the characters of the parent plant were transplanted 

 by means of a single bud ; and so certain is this to occur 



Fig. 28. 



Process of Budding, a, cutting the bud from 

 the parent branch ; d, inner surface of the 

 removed portion, showing the base of the 

 petiole, and beneath it a bit of wood adher- 

 ing 10 the base of the bud ; c, the bud placed 

 in position and partly tied in. After BARRY. 



