CHAP. IV.J 
SUCKERS. 
71 
plants root in the ground* such as suckers* 
layers* and cuttings; and those in which they 
are made to root in another plant* as in bud¬ 
ding* grafting, and inarching. 
Suckers . — Sending up suckers* forming 
offsets* and throwing out runners* are all 
natural ways of propagation that require 
very little aid from the hand of man; and if 
all plants produced these* nothing more 
would be required than to divide the off¬ 
spring from the parent* and replant it in any 
suitable soil. But only certain plants throw 
up suckers* such as the rose* the raspberry* 
the lilac* the English elm* &c. Offsets are 
only formed on bulbs* and runners are only 
thrown out by strawberries* brambles* and a 
few other plants; and thus these modes of 
propagation are extremely limited in prac¬ 
tice. No plants produce suckers but those 
that send out strong horizontal roots; and 
the sucker is in fact a bud from one of these 
roots which has pushed its way up through 
the soil* and become a stem. As this stem 
generally forms fibrous roots of its own* 
above its point of junction with the parent 
root* it may in most cases* when it is thought 
