86 



PRACTICAL BOTANY 



78. Reproduction by detached branches. A few words were 

 said in Sect. 60 about how some trees, such as snap willows, 

 are reproduced by broken-ofE twigs, rooting like cuttings. 



A good many water plants, 

 such as the common bladder- 

 wort, produce leafy buds or 

 branch tips (Fig. 362) which 

 become detached from the 

 parent plant. In late autumn 

 the latter usually dies, and 

 in the spring new individuals 

 arise from the buds which 

 have lain dormant all winter 

 at the bottoms of the ponds or 

 slow streams where they grew. 

 Numerous woody plants, 

 such as willows, grapevines, 

 currant bushes, gooseberry 

 bushes, and geraniums, and 

 some herbaceous plants such 

 as the hop vine and the Wan- 

 dering Jew, are usuallygrown 

 from cuttings. Many others, 

 such as the French marigold 

 and the garden portulaca, not 

 usually thus grown, may be 

 readily propagated by cut- 

 tings. In the case of woody 

 plants the cutting should be 

 taken from well-matured twigs 

 of the previous season. In 

 order to avoid too much loss 

 of water and consequent wilt- 

 ing, leafy cuttings are often 

 kept covered for a short time 

 with a tumbler or bell glass. 



Fig. 69. A geranium cutting, allow- 

 ing growth of many young roots which 

 spring from a node near the cut end 



