. Botany of the living plant. Botany. VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION 219 repens), and the Common Horsetail (Equisehun aroeiise) are cases in point. Any node serves to provide new buds ; and as the long under- ground rhizomes are broken up in preparing tlie soil, this docs not eliminate, but tends to spread the weed. It thus appears that vege- tative extension and propa- gation of the individual is a very wide-spread feature, both in Flowering Plants and in those lower in the scale. It is effective in wild life, as well as under the hand of the gardener. A very consider- able proportion of the per- enn
. Botany of the living plant. Botany. VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION 219 repens), and the Common Horsetail (Equisehun aroeiise) are cases in point. Any node serves to provide new buds ; and as the long under- ground rhizomes are broken up in preparing tlie soil, this docs not eliminate, but tends to spread the weed. It thus appears that vege- tative extension and propa- gation of the individual is a very wide-spread feature, both in Flowering Plants and in those lower in the scale. It is effective in wild life, as well as under the hand of the gardener. A very consider- able proportion of the per- ennial plants which we see have been so produced. This applies especially to the Grasses and Sedges, whose perennial rhizomes are con- stantly growing forward, and as constantly rotting pro- gressively from the base. But probably the most prominent, and at the same time familiar example of all is the Bracken Fern, which covers immense areas all over the world. Its underground rhizomes brancii freely; if a single specimen be dug up, and followed backwards, the brown region of decay is soon reached. Young seedling Brackens are rarely met with in the open. Here then is a case where the apical growth and branching of the individual are practically unlimited, and where its vegetative increase in number of ph^-siologically independent units appears to be unlimited too. It may be held as a type of that vegetative spread and multiplication which, though it involves no special development for the purpose, is frequent among perennial Fig. 167. of li:-ut of Gloxinia, bearing ^id\eiititinus budb after cuUi\-ation, in heat, on moi^t Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Bower, F. O. (Frederick Orpen), 1855-1948. London, Macmillan and co. , limited
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1919
