delicate, the leaves too are stunted into little scales; in their axils, however, they develop strong buds, which either in the same or in the following year take root, and the slender shoot connecting them with the parent plant, dying and decaying, they become free independent plants. In this manner the strawberry soon covers a neglected garden."[12] Upon the development of a cell in any living tissue, and its power of reproducing other cells, and upon its function of communicating by endosmosis and exosmosis with other like cells, depend all our success in propagating vegetables, whether from seeds or buds, and parts containing these. We must study the circumstances that favor the development of cells, if we would be successful in propagating plants. Each bud being considered an individual, and capable, under favorable circumstances, of taking on a separate existence, we can multiply any individual variety indefinitely, and be sure of having the same qualities of foliage and fruit that we admire in the original, and that we may desire to propagate. This applies equally to a group of buds, as in cuttings, grafts and layers, etc.; but, more wonderful still, there are cells capable of developing buds where none existed before, and even in tissues or parts of a plant where we do not usually find buds--hence we have a mode of propagation of many woody plants, by root cuttings, and by leaves, and even parts of leaves. PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS.--Many fruits are multiplied by this means. Healthy shoots of the previous year's growth are usually selected and taken when the parent is in a dormant state, or still better, when it is approaching this condition. Sometimes a small portion of the previous year's growth is left with the cutting, making a sort of _heel_; when this is not to be had, or not preferred, the slip is to be prepared for planting by cutting it smoothly just below a bud, as this seems to be the most favorable point in many plants for the emission of roots. Some plants will throw out radicles at any point indifferently along the internodes or merithallus. The preference for heel-cuttings depends upon the fact, that near the base of the annual shoot there are always a great number of buds, many of which, however, being imperfectly developed, are inconspicuous, but though dormant, they seem to favor the emission of rootlets. Cuttings may be made to grow if taken at any period of their development, but when green and soft, they require particular conditions of heat and moisture in the soil, and atmosphere, that are only under the control of the professional gardener. They are usually taken in the dormant state, because they are then susceptible of being made to grow under the ordinary conditions of out-door gardening. If cut early in the season, on the approach of autumn, after the wood-growth has been perfected, they may be planted at once with good prospect of success, or they may