28 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
SELF-PRESER\'ATIOX IX PLANTS. 
The instinct of self-preservation in the vegetable world is per- 
haps not less, but merely less obvious than in the animal kingdom. 
Our scientific friends are apt to freeze our sanguine hopes by in- 
fomiing us with emotionless mien that the individual is of no 
morilent, the preservation of the species, only being of conse- 
quence. Self-preservation is then but a step in the direction of 
presentation of species, and, broadly construed, must include the 
instinct of reproduction. 
So anxious do some plants seem to avoid being the last of the 
line that they provide them.selves with several means of procuring 
descendants. The common garden onion affords a convenient 
example. If a row of onions in the flowering stage is examined, 
it is probable that a considerable number will be found bearing 
both flowers and bulblets or *'top onions/' while we are fa- 
miliar with the onion having two or more cores. Here, then, we 
have one means of reproduction and two of multiplication : seed 
from the flowers^ young onions or bulblets, and division in the 
bulb, forming what is known as a "multiplier." 
The potato plant may propagate itself from the tuber or from 
seed : the strawberr\- by runners or by seeding: the verbena by 
seeding and by rooting at the joints or nodes. In some plants if 
a leaf falls to the ground, it will, under favorable conditions, 
strike and develop a new plant. This is true of som^ begonias, 
and remarkably common with BryophyUum; and species of Mcs- 
embryanthcmum are often propagated by cutting the plant in 
pieces and scattering them on the ground. — L. A. Greata in Cali- 
fornia Floriculturist. 
XOTE AXD COMMEXT. 
Wanted. — Shon notes of interest to the general botanist are 
always in demand for this department. Our readers are invited 
t ' make this the place of publication for their botanical items. 
Rooting of Oxalis Leaves — In the Plant World for X'^ovem- 
ber, 1 90 1, John L. Sheldon records the rooting of the leaves of 
