Propagation. Propagation is the true production of plants: it is the means which nature has given them to reproduce without sexual union, contrary to the claims of several authors.

Plants are perpetuated by the seeds which they themselves produce, and if one considers that a poppy capsule contains over a thousand seeds and that a single plant has several stems and therefore several capsules, one will see that each plant bears an immense number of seeds.

Ligneous plants have a further, shorter means of multiplying, some from the cuttings, shoots, offshoots, and scions growing at their bases which are separated with some roots already formed, some from cuttings, sets, suckers, or rootless branches which are sharpened at one end and driven into the ground, and others from layers and layered vinestocks which are branches laid out in the ground to take root.

Young or offset bulbs which appear around mother-bulbs and are separated and replanted elsewhere multiply bulbous plants more promptly than do their seeds.

While fibrous or ligamentous plants produce a great many seeds, they throw out an even larger number of tillers which multiply them excessively.

A modern author has combined nature with art to present us with a universal system of plant propagation (Agricola, Agriculture parfaite, p. 220). [1] He claims that the lower portion of the tree, like the upper portion, has all of the parts which are essential to plant life: the stem has in itself a pith from where roots can spring up, and there are small filaments on the branches and leaves which resemble roots and can take root in the ground. Hence a branch encloses roots materially, from which it follows that the root is in the stem. In the same way, a root has small, scaly nodes, cracks or fissures which mark the annual rings, from where small stems can spring up along with their branches. If the stems were not in the roots, at least materially, they could not shoot up from them.

From this, he concludes: 1. that one can graft several twigs on to a thick root separated from the main body of the tree and replant it at ground level, taking care not to separate the grafts before they have taken again; 2. that one can also graft twigs on to an uncovered root attached to its tree and then cut the root into rooted sections to which the grafts will be attached; 3. that if a large branch is cut into several pieces of which each has a latent bud and is sealed at both ends, and these pieces are then planted, they will take again perfectly. It is assumed that the section which has been buried in the soil has grown roots, like willow or fig branches. In the same way, a portion of root sealed at each end will grow roots which will produce fine branches when they are strong, provided that one allows the upper end of the root to protrude somewhat from the ground.

This author calls this type of propagation the ‘hundred thousandth’ in relation to raising plants from seed and goes so far as to have leaves planted along with their stalks, dividing the leaves into two at the top and coating the incision with a wax sealant. By this means, he proposes to plant and repopulate woods, in the same manner as another author (the Italian père Mirandola [ sic ], a celebrated gardener) who made orange-tree leaves take root. [2]

When one tends to orange trees which are being transplanted, instead of discarding the roots which one has removed, Mirandola recommends cutting them into two-foot sections, waxing the sections at both ends, cleft grafting branches on to them, and replanting them separately. He claims that the secret of success lies in cutting the branches at the joints and applying hot, composed wax to them, which he calls ‘noble mummy’.

Notes

1. Agricola, 1720. The physician and philosopher George-André Agricola is known to have resided in Ratisbon at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He claimed to have discovered new methods of propagating trees from leaves or twigs ( Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, i.242-3).

2. This may be A. Mandirola, author of Manuale de giardiniere of 1684.