KINDS OF STEMS AND BRANCHES. 39 
99. A Stolon is a branch which reclines on the ground, or bends over to it, and 
strikes root (Fig. 74). Currant-bushes spread naturally by stolons, and so does 
White Clover. The gardener imitates the process where it does not naturally 
occur, or facilitates it where it does, by bending branches to the ground, and pinning 
them down, when they strike root where they are covered by the soil, and then the 
branch, having leaves and roots of its own, may be separated as an independent 
plant. In this way the gardener multiplies many plants by layering which he 
cannot so readily propagate by seed. 
Runner. 74 Sucker. Stolon. 
100. A Runner (Fig. 74) is a very slender, thread-like, leafless stolon, much like 
a tendril, lying on the ground, and rooting and budding at the point; so giving rise 
to a new plant at some distance from the parent, and connected with it during the 
first year. But the runner dies in winter and leaves the young plant independent. 
The Strawberry-plant affords the most familiar illustration of runners. Each plant 
or offshoot, as soon as established, sends out runners of its own, which make new 
plants at their tip. In this way a single Strawberry-plant produces a numerous 
progeny in the course of the summer, and establishes them at convenient dis- 
tances all around. 
101. A Sucker (Fig. 74) is a branch uian: springs from a parent stem under 
ground, where it makes roots of its own, while farther on it rises above ground into 
a leafy stem, and becomes an independent plant whenever the connection with the 
parent stem dies or is cut off. It is by suckers that Rose and Raspberry bushes 
multiply and spread so “by the root,” as is generally said. But that these subter- 
ranean shoots are stems, and not roots (though they produce roots), will plainly 
appear by uncovering them. : 
102. An Offset is a short branch, next the ground or below its surface, like a 
short stolon or sucker, bearing a tuft of leaves at the end, and taking root where this 
