214 OUTLINES OF PLANT LIFE. 



formation. The house-leek or live-for-ever (fig. 207) and 

 stonecrop (fig. 182) reproduce themselves by offsets. These 

 are short branches with a rosette of leaves at the tip which 

 are readily detached and roll away, to take root at the first op- 

 portunity and establish a new plant. 

 The strawberry forms long leafless 

 branches which take root at the tip 

 and produce new plants, the slender 

 runner subsequently perishing (fig. O" 

 183). The white potato forms at the 

 end of slender underground branches 

 elongated tubers upon which are 

 numerous buds, any one of which, 

 nourished by the reserve food in the 

 tuber, may produce a new shoot. 

 The slender stem by which the tuber 



Fig. 182.— a plant of stonecrop {Sedum dasypkylluui). Offsets are produced near 

 the base on short branches O, O ; At the tip of longer branches, O' ; and in place of 

 the flowers, O". Natural size. — After Kerner. 



is connected with the main axis perishes at the end of the 

 growing season (fig. 184). 



302. {d) Cuttings or scions. — Closely related to this 

 mode of reproduction is that by the separation of fleshy 

 members, upon which later are developed adventitious buds 

 that give rise to new plants. The thick leaves of Bryophyl- 

 lum are often blown off by storms, and prgduce new plants 

 from buds formed at the teeth along the edge. Some species 

 of Kleinia, natives of Cape Colony, have fleshy stems, jointed 



