. Lessons with plants. Suggestions for seeing and interpreting some of the common forms of vegetation. 374 LJlSSOIfS WITS PLANTS giving rise to the stories of the early explorersthat oysters grow on trees. 470. All this will recall the accounts of thebanyan tree, and there are wild fig trees (the ban-yan is a fig) in Florida and southwards whichbehave in a similar way. It seems strange thatroots should strike out into the air, but the pupilmay have observed the brace rootsnear the ground on Indian corn; andmany plants, as the ivy and trumpet-creeper, climb by means of roots. LXXIII. CUTTINGS A
. Lessons with plants. Suggestions for seeing and interpreting some of the common forms of vegetation. 374 LJlSSOIfS WITS PLANTS giving rise to the stories of the early explorersthat oysters grow on trees. 470. All this will recall the accounts of thebanyan tree, and there are wild fig trees (the ban-yan is a fig) in Florida and southwards whichbehave in a similar way. It seems strange thatroots should strike out into the air, but the pupilmay have observed the brace rootsnear the ground on Indian corn; andmany plants, as the ivy and trumpet-creeper, climb by means of roots. LXXIII. CUTTINGS AND GRAFTS 471. A plant multiplies itself bymeans of various sexual and asexualparts which normally detach from it may also spread by means ofparts which are torn off by winds and animals, and thus make use ofaccidents. The branches of willowsare broken off by ice and storm,and take root and grow. They areoften carried down the streams and drifted uponthe shores of lakes, and the branches often takeroot as readily from the top end as from thebottom Pig. 395. Multiple tips of a mangrove root- brancli. CUTTINGS AND GBAFTS 375 472. The leaves of the Mexican bryophyllum(which is often seen in greenhouses) send upplants from their edges when they fall in moistplaces (Fig. 396). Even the scales of bulbs some- y Pig. of bryophyllum. times produce buds at the base and give rise tonew plants ; and the horticulturist often utilizesthis capacity to increase his stock of new or rarevarieties. 473. The stems and even the leaves of someplants produce numerous adventitious plantlets(Figs. 397, 398) while they are still growing onthe parent plant, so impatient are they to multi-ply. It seems as if the vegetable kingdom wereredundant with proereative vigor. 376 LESSONS WITS PLANTS 474. As reproduction by asexual or vegetativemeans increases, seed-production tends to are many kinds of plantswhich are normally nearly or quiteseedless, but such plants are
Size: 952px × 2626px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorbai, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbotany
