PLANTS MULTIPLIED BY DIVISION. 



25 



too numerous to mention. In culinary vegetables, also, 

 most of our best sorts of cabbage, lettuce, and other 

 similar kinds, have been j^roduced from seed. These are 

 only to be obtained, ho^vever, by vhat is termed " cross- 

 fertilisation," or hybridising, which is simply transferring 

 the pollen, or small yellovr or red dust, from the anthers 

 of a flower of one sort, to the summit of the pistil or 

 female part of the flower of another sort, and thus pro- 

 ducing seed, the plants from which will partake of the 

 nature of both the parent species. 



The frequent occurrence of such circumstances as those 

 before-mentioned, has led to the application of art in the 

 propagation of plants, and several methods have succes- 

 sively been devised, for multiplying particular kinds, in a 

 difterent manner than by sowing seed. Indeed, to such 

 an extent have the various systems been carried, that 

 propagation by seed has now been almost entirely super- 

 seded, except with such kinds as are only of annual or 

 biennial duration, or are of herbaceous habits. In the 

 following arranerement, it will be seen that the difterent 

 methods have been treated of in the order in which they 

 vere naturally suggested. 



5. — P ropafjatlng by division of the Poofs. 



Every root has what is called the crown or neck, and 

 in some tuberous roots, as the potato, a similar part is 

 called the eye, attached to which is the body of the root, 

 and from this the fibres with their feeding tips or mouths 

 are produced. 



The crown, neck, or eye, is in most roots the only part 

 of them that can send up a stem. The exceptions to tijis, 

 are the roots of mint, horse-radish, iris, Jerusalem arti- 

 choke, couch or quitch grass, and a troublesome weed in 

 gardens called ash-weed, from the leaf resembling that 

 of the ash, the smallest piece of the roots of any of which 

 will grow, because they seem to be rather under-ground 

 stems than real roots. Rhubarb, likewise, and sea-kale 

 will generally produce plants from a piece of the roots, 

 though entirely destitute of eyes. They are, however, a 

 great length of time in performing this "process, and the 



D 



