New Plants ivitliout Seed 



121 



distance from the parent, and in a few years they will travel 

 far up or down the mountain. 



A great many of the Cape plants reproduce by bulbs. 

 They may lie dormant in the ground for years. After the vege- 

 tation has been burned off these bulbs have a chance, and 

 then send up flowering stalks which turn the blackened veld 

 into a garden. 



New plants are obtained by cuttings from old ones. Some- 

 times the stock is cut back so as to obtain a supply of shoots 

 for this purpose. It is in this way that sweet potatoes are pro- 

 pagated. Kleinia articulata, Haw., Fig. [o8, which grows about 

 Uitenhage, propagates naturally by cuttings. The fleshy stems 

 are jointed or constricted at intervals. A 

 strong wind breaks the plant at these joints, 

 and new shoots start from the axils of the leaves 

 In a seed the first root is formed ready to 

 push down into the soil. In reproduction 

 without seed (vegetative reproduction), new 

 roots have to be formed from the ;item ; these 

 roots are called adventitious roots. 



Vegetative reproduction occurs when 

 plants grow in the shade or in rich soil. 

 When the soil becomes exhausted, seed will 

 be formed. 



Fig. 109. — Grafting ; d, the stock to which the graft is attached. The 

 various elements in the process of budding. (From ThomiJ and Bennett's 

 "Structural and Physiological Botany".) 



Vegetative reproduction is sure and economical, a disad- 

 vantage arises from the close crowding of new plants, 



