176 PKOPAGATION OF PLANTS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

 PROPAGATION BY SUCKEKS AND DIVISIONS. 



Suckers are shoots which are produced from latent or 

 adventitious buds on the subterranean stems or roots. 

 Shoots that spring up from the base of the main stem of 

 a plant are often referred to under the name of stem- 

 suckers, but "sprout" is by far the more appropriate 

 name, as they are of a very different origin, and should 

 not be confounded with the true suckers of plants. There 

 are hundreds of difEerent kinds and species of plants 

 ■which, under certain conditions, produce sprouts quite 

 freely from their crowns or the base of their stems, but 

 seldom or never a true sucker from the roots. 



The common Dahlia and Pseonia are familiar tuberous 

 rooted plants that produce sprouts or stems from their 

 crowns, but no buds or suckers from any part of the 

 tuber or root below it. Among trees, the Oatalpas, Ma- 

 ples, Magnolias and Chestnuts are well known kinds that 

 produce sprouts freely, but seldom or never a sucker. 



To increase by suckers appears to be one of nature's 

 methods of multiplying certain kinds of plants, and when 

 these are brought under cultivation it becomes a ready 

 and simple means of propagation. It is very probable, 

 however, that long continued propagation by suckers will 

 intensify the habit until the plant multiplies so rapidly 

 in this way, that it will lose much of its original value, 

 even if it does not become an intolerable nuisance to the 

 cultivator. The propagation of plants by natural suckers 

 is certainly a convenient process, but upon the whole it 

 tends more to the degeneration of the species or variety 

 thus multiplied than to improving it ; consequently, it 

 should never be resorted to except with some of the simple 

 species, like the Easpberry and Blackberry, or herbaceous 



