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adventitious roots, which grow from the lower nodes or joints near the surface of the 
soil. Such roots are common in the potato, runners of the strawberry, couch-grass, 
buffalo-grass, &c. 
There is a remarkable development of adventitious roots on the trunks of some 
tree-ferns (e.g., Dicksonia), where they may appear in such abundance as to enclose 
the trunk in a spongy mass. Other ferns showing this well are Alsophila Cooperi Hook., 
Cyathea dealbata Swartz (both tree ferns), Nephrolepis cordifolia Pr., and also Todea 
barbara L. (Squatty Fern). 
The tendency to form adventitious roots may be taken advantage of to raise 
plants from cuttings, by placing them directly in the ground (Roses, Willows), in water, 
or by packing with a cushion of damp moss (Figs). This is aided sometimes by incisions 
in the stem. Adventitious roots may be seen in the Dragon Tree (Dracaena Draco) 
and Mr. E. N. Ward, Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, has suggested 
that they may be taken advantage of to save several years in the propagation of this 
ornamental tree. 
Coulter, Barnes and Cowles (" Text-book of Botany," ii, 503) emphasise the value 
to a tree of a tendency to produce adventitious roots when coming into contact with 
wet soil, thus Willows and Poplars possess this character in a pre-eminent degree, and 
this is economically useful in reclamation work, for when they are partly buried by sand 
or soil, as fast as the stems are buried, new adventitious roots appear at higher levels. 
In this connection note the lists of plants recommended for reclamation of river banks 
in Vol. vi, pp. 141-143 of the present work. Almost invariably they were selected 
because of their tendency to produce adventitious roots, a few exceptions being plants 
selected to clothe the normal banks. Indeed, the study, of plants which produce 
adventitious roots is indispensable to workers in problems of river erosion, and, to a less 
extent, sand drift (see Part LVII of the present work). 
Now Pines (Pinus), Cypress Pines (Cattitris), Oaks (Quercus), &c., are unable to 
develop adventitious roots in this manner, and hence they are readily killed when partly 
buried. From this cause we lost our finest Cork Oak (Quercus Suber), and other valuable 
trees in the filling-up operations in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, in the year 1903. The 
subject has a very practical aspect to the landscape gardener and tree-planter generally 
in his operations of filling in soil around the stems of trees, and one realises that very 
little attention has been given to it. 
Adventitious Roots in Native Trees. 
The photo of Eucalyptus rostrata Schlecht., by His Honor Judge Docker, is, so 
far as I am aware, the first published of this particular Eucalypt with adventitious roots. 
Eucalyptus resinifera Sm. In the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, there is a tree of 
this species (" Forest Mahogany ") not planted by the hand of man, which has sent 
forth, at a distance of 4j feet from the ground, an adventitious root, which is now 
2J inches in diameter, and which has now entered the ground, thus forming a small 
auxiliary stem. 
