276 HOW TO STRIKE LEAVES. 



No plant can form a new individual without first organising 

 a bud. That must he in all cases the first step in the process 

 of propagation. Now buds are known to spring exclusively 

 from the soft pulpy or cellular matter that constitutes the flesh 

 of plants, and not from their solid woody parts. This cellular 

 matter is formed by Nature out of organisable fluids produced 

 by the leaves, and by the leaves only, or their equivalent, as in 

 the instance of the green bark of the leafless Cacti. Hence it 

 follows that leaves are really the great agents of propagation in 

 any case, whether layers, cuttings, or other forms of multipli- 

 cation are had recourse to; for the power possessed by the 

 parts of plants so named is derived immediately and exclu- 

 sively from the leaves. But leaves in their natural state are 

 connected with the stem by a peculiar and admirable mecha- 

 nism, which insures their being continually and abundantly 

 supplied with food out of which they may prepare the 

 organisable matter that is in the first instance to engender 

 cellular substance and afterwards a bud. If this mechanism is 

 disarranged the leaf dies, or becomes unhealthy, and loses its 

 bud-creating power. No disturbance of the mechanism in 

 question can weU. be greater than that which separates the leaf 

 from its stem, and therefore the chances of the leaf dying are 

 great in proportion. But if, notwithstanding the separation of 

 a leaf from its supply of food, means can be found to nourish it 

 in some other manner, it may be kept alive ; and if its vitality 

 can only be preserved long enough, it must necessarily go on 

 forming cellular matter, which again will obey that irresistible 

 impulse which compels a bud to be engendered ; and the bud 

 being formed, a new plant will follow as a matter of course. 

 The problem to solve is how to nourish a leaf as well- as it was 

 nourished by its parent. To that question propagators have 

 exclusively to direct their attention, for there is no fact more 

 certain in nature than that if the supply of proper food to a 

 leaf is but kept up, form a new plant it inevitably must. 



The difficulties connected with the question will perhaps be 

 diminished, if we first ascertain what the means are by which 

 certain leaves have been made to grow already. Mandirola 

 tells us that he struck his Lemon and Orange leaves by 



