■ 



VOL. LV.— No. 3,068, 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1912 



THE 



GARDENERS 



MAGAZINE 



NOTE OF THE \X/ KK TC . distribution. W. orientalis, on the substance, and then layered. The wounds 



4- 



Proliferation. 



The term proliferation (from proles, off- 



other hand, has its fronds profusely dotted then Jieal, and the marginal cells develop 

 over with small plants, produced on pimple buds round the edges, thus affording an 

 lines as with the asplenium above described, 

 but the^.e are very looselv attached, and, 

 having formed two or three tiny round 



easy means of propagation. Hyacinths and 

 other bulbous plants bear proliferous buds 

 if their bases be hollowed out, and the 



which produce offspring by buds engen- 

 dered in unusiial places. Thus most dicoty- 

 ledonous trees, that is, those whose 

 seeds produce two primary leaves or 

 cotyledons, bear buds in the axils of 

 their leaves, i.e., in the angle where 

 the leaf-stalk springs from the twig 

 or branch which Ibears it, but we do 

 not call such trees proliferous, 



to the ground, and so bring some of the 

 plantlets into contact with it. In all these 



spring, and fero, I -bear) might, from its fronds, fall off, sail to the grvound, and root edges of their latent foliage is thus ex- 



oonstruotion, be applied, of course, to all themselves fairly freely. The asplenium posed ; the principle .being the same as in 



forms of life which produce living offspring youngsters, on the other hand, have to wait the case of begonia. The Hart's-tongue 



directly, but in plants it is confined to those initil the old frond so far decays as to fall fern has produced proliferous sports which 



bear bulbils on the front surfaces or the 

 stalks^ such phenomena being confined to 



abnormal varieties, but all the 

 numSerous forms of this protean 

 species, as well as- the species 

 itself, possess a latent proli- 

 ferousness by virtue of which the 

 old frond basis which build np the 

 caudex, can protluce bulbils ad libi- 

 tum if seA^ered and close cultured. 

 On a base an inch long we have 

 counted no less than thirty-six de- 

 veloped plantlets. It has also been 



demonstrated that even the severed 

 roots of many plants are capable of 



producing buds under culture, and 

 in point of fact, it seems fairly cer- 

 tain that active plant cells, wher- 

 ever situated contain all the esseji- 



even though such buds may be 

 induced to become independent 

 plants by proper treatment. In nu- 

 merous ferns, however, ave find buds 

 engendered on the upper, or more 

 rarely, on the under, surfaces of the 

 fronds. On Asplenium bulbiferum, 

 for instance, a very common fern 

 for room decoration, young plants 

 appear in considerable numbers, 

 first as small, scaly pimples on the 

 subdivisions of the fronds, and 

 then, under ecmgenially damp con- 

 ditions, as well-develop ?d youngsters 

 with fronds sev^eral inches long, and 

 so precocions that they, too, break 

 out into another generation while 

 still attached, .and this may even go 

 a step further and produce a third. 

 Several members of the same genus 

 do the same thing in varied degrees, 

 but the genus is a large one, and 

 the majority present no such phe- 

 nomena. Some species only assume 

 a proliferous character in conjunc- 

 tion with abnormal variation, the 

 normal type presenting no trace of 

 it. Thus it is with the Polystichum 

 angulare, in which proliferation is 



devt'loped to the grcatrst extent in 



conjuiietion with reduced and very cases, the bulbil plants produced hav^e in- 



I B ■ * 



MR. SAMUEL GORDON. 



tials of plant creation, and are 

 capable, under certain circum- 

 stances, of assuming the function of 

 reproduction if the normal course of 

 that function be obstructed. The 

 materials which it is the function of 

 the leaf to manufacture and distri- 

 bute thereafter to the general plant 

 system, fails, by the detachment of 

 the leaf, to find its natural channel, 

 and therefore is seized upon by the 



cells in the vicinity, at the point of 

 least resistance, viz., the wounded 

 edge, as pabulum for a new plant or 

 plants, hence the bulbils. Prolifera- 

 tion, as we have said, may be in- 

 duced in roots bv severance, but it 

 really occurs normally in many in- 

 stances where tubers are formed. 

 Thus, in the potato each tuber is 



undertrround 



cipient roots at their bases, and, so far, 

 are perfect little plants. An exotic, but 



practically hardy lastrea, L. viv 

 the peculiar and rare faculty, as a species, 

 of producing such bulbils on the frond 

 backs in conjunction with the spore hea-ps. 

 This is also done by some of our plumose 

 varieties of Ladv Fern (Athyriuni filix 

 faMuina), but these are very abnormal in 

 other respects. Proliferation, however, 

 may be induced artificially in cases where 

 otherwise it would not appear. Thus the 

 leaves of some plants, the begonias, for 

 instance, possess the pecuHar faculty of pro- 

 ducing buds, i.e., of becoming .proliferous, 

 if thev be wounded bv cuts through their 



practically an 

 growth of one or 



the folia^!:e above 



morfe 



ground 



proliferous 

 buds which 

 has fur- 



acutSely pointed ultimate segments (acuti- 

 lobum), though it also occurs in mauj 



other abnormal variations on different lines, practically hardy Tastrea, L. vivipara, has nished with, thanks to culture and selec- 

 usually near the bases of the fronds. 

 Among the woodwardias we have two dif- 

 ferent forms of proliferation W. radicans 

 produces one or two robust bulbils near the 

 ^nd of eacli front These develop while 

 still attached into fair-sized plants, and 

 consequently gradually weigh dc-wn the 

 frond tips until they reach the soil, well 

 away from the parent rootstock. This 

 plant, therefore, represents an exaggerated 

 Walking Fern, as the small-growing Anu'h- 

 can species, Camptosorus rhyzophyllus, is 

 called, owing to a similar habit of growth 



t ion , an abnormal am ou n t of nutr i ti ve , 

 starchy material. Mere ffeshy roots, how- 

 ever, such as the turnip, carrot, etc., devoid 

 of such lateral buds, do not belong to the 

 proliferous category, and, as a general rule, 

 it may be stated that the term *' prolifer- 

 ous " is only applied to aerial bud-prmluc- 



ing plants, usually on abnormal lines. 



r. Samuel Gordon, whose por- 

 trait is given herewith, has for about 

 fifteen years ha<l charge of the gardens 

 at Monre^th House, the Wigtownshire 



