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which operation particular care must be taken to 

 preserve the fibres, and to have a portion of 

 them attached to each division. The Scitaminae, 

 or ginger-like plants, are readily encreased in 

 this way, as are herbaceous plants in general. 

 Others, as in Dracontium, which produce fibres 

 along the stem in the free air, almost imme- 

 dately become distinct plants by its being cut 

 into lengths and planted. Palms, a very mag- 

 nificent family of plants, are to be encreased by 

 offsets or seeds, and the Bounapartia, a ge- 

 nus from South America by Cavanille, an emi- 

 nent Spanish Botanist, is, I fear, to be done by 

 seeds only, as I have tried several experiments 

 on it, but hitherto without success. 



Many bulbous plants that rarely produce 

 offsets, and which have thick coats like an onion, 

 may be encreased most abundantly by slicing 

 them transversely a little above the middle : 

 an accident which happened to Hcemanthus 

 pubescens, first taught us this practice, and it 

 has since been practised on several of the rarer 

 Ornithog alums with success. The young bulbs 

 form abundantly near the margin of the outer 

 coat. 



