Mr. Knight's views, though they have taken a strong hold upon the popular mind, have not been confirmed by physiologists. For though the seed would appear to be the proper source whence to derive our new plants, and certainly our new varieties of fruits, many plants have, for an indefinite period, been propagated by layers, shoots or scions, buds, tubers, etc., and that the variety has thus been extended much beyond the period of the life of the parent or original seedling. Strawberries are propagated and multiplied by the runners, potatoes by tubers, the Tiger Lily by bulblets, some onions by proliferous bulbs, sugarcane by planting pieces of the stalk, many grapes by horizontal stems, and many plants by cuttings, for a very great length of time. The grape vine has been continued in this way from the days of the Romans. A slip taken from a willow in Mr. Knight's garden pronounced by him to be dying from old age, was planted in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden many years ago, and is now a vigorous tree, though the original stock has long since gone to decay.[11]
FOOTNOTES:
[3] North American Sylva, Nuttall II, p. 25.
[4] Diary.
[5] History of Knaresborough, p. 216.—Companion of the Orchard, p. 34.
[6] Our lexicographers give it a similar origin, but refer it to the shape in which it was put up. Others derive it from poma, Spanish, a box of perfume.
[7] Phillips' Companion, p. 32.
[8] Phillips' Companion, p. 41.
[9] Balfour's Manual.