CHAPTER II. 



HOW PLANTS ARE PROPAGATED OR MULTIPLIED IN NUMBERS. 



Section I. — How Propagated from Buds. 



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

 or increase their numbers. Tliis they do at such a rate that almost any species, 

 if favorably situated, and 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 Seeds. All 

 plants propagate by seeds, or by what answer to seeds. Besides this, a gi-eat 

 number of plants, mostly perennials, propagate naturally from buds. 



156. And almost any kind of plant ma}' be made to propagate from buds, by 

 taking sufBcient pains. The gardener multiplies plants artificially in this way, 



157. By Layers and Slips or Cuttings. In laying or layering, the gardener bends 

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

 ing a ring of bark, to make it strike root the quicker, — 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 piece of an old one. Many 

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



158. By Grafting or Budding. In grafting, 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 stoclS^ 

 (as the stem used to graft on is called). Tlie piece inserted is called a scion. In 

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

 wood of the scion con-espond with these parts in the stock, when they will grow 

 together, and become as completely united as a natural branch is with its pai-ent 

 stem. In budding or inocidating, a young bud, stripped from one fresh plant, is 

 inserted under the bark of another, usually in summer ; there it adheres and gen- 



