BOOTS CAN GENERATE BUDS. 



31 



increased with great facility by small bits of the root being inserted 

 in a shady border and covered with a hand-glass; but in none of 

 them does the power reside in the same degree as lathe Japan Anemone. 

 If a root of this plant be taken from the ground after flowering, it wiU 

 be foTind to resemble brown oord, divided iato a great nnmber of 

 ramifications, as is represented in the accompanying cut. Fpon its 

 surface wiU be perceived a multitude of white conical projections, 

 sometimes growing singly, sometimes springing up in clusters, and 



Kg. VI. — ^Boot of Anemone japonica. 



occasionally producing scales upon their sides. A magnified view of 

 these bodies is shown at Fig. VI. a. They are young buds, every one of 

 which, if cut from its parent, wiU grow and form a young plant in a 

 few weeks. These buds are not confined to the main trunk of the root, 

 but extend even towards its extremities ; so that every fragment of the 

 plant is reproductive. It is certain that vitality is stronger in the roots 

 than in any other part of a plant. Live roots have been found in land 

 many years after the trunks to which they belonged had been destroyed. 

 I have myself seen live Whitethorn roots taken out of a field on the 

 London clay where no one could recollect having seen a Whitethorn 

 hedge. This fact was long since pointed out by Mr. Knight, who, in 

 his experiments with fruit-trees, found continual evidence, as he has 



