t number of separate individuals. Cutting into pieces
only multiplies the pest; for each piece (Fig. 98) is already a
plantlet, with its roots and with a bud in the axil of its scale-like
leaf (either latent or apparent), and with prepared nourishment enough
to develop this bud into a leafy stem; and so a single plant is all the
more speedily converted into a multitude. Whereas, when the subterranean
parts are only roots, cutting away the stem completely destroys the
plant, except in the rather rare cases where the root freely produces
adventitious buds.

[Illustration: Fig. 98. A piece of the running rootstock of the
Peppermint, with its node or joint, and an axillary bud ready to grow.]

106. Rootstocks are more commonly thickened by the storing up of
considerable nourishing matter in their tissue. The common species of
Iris (Fig. 164) in the gardens have stout rootstocks, which are only
partly covered by the soil, and which bear foliage-leaves instead of
mere scales, closely covering the upper part, while the lower produces
roots. As the leaves die, year by year, and decay, a scar left in the
form of a ring marks the place where each leaf was attached, that is,
marks so many nodes, separated by very short internodes.

107. Some rootstocks are marked with large round scars of a different
sort, like those of the Solomon's Seal (Fig. 99), which gave this name
to the plant, from their looking somewhat like the impression of a seal
upon wax. Here the rootstock sends up every spring an herbaceous stalk
or stem, which bears the foliage and flowers, and dies in autumn. The
_seal_ is the circular scar left by the death and separation of the base
of the stout stalk from the living rootstock. As but one of these is
formed each year, they mark the limits of a year's growth. The bud at
the end of the rootstock in the figure (which was taken in summer) will
grow the next spring into the stalk of the season, which, dying in
autumn, will leave a similar scar, while another bud will be formed
farther on, crowning the ever-advancing summit or growing end of the
stem.

[Illustration: Fig. 99. Rootstock of Solomon's Seal, with the bottom of
the stalk of the season, and the bud for the next year's growth.]

108. As each year's growth of stem makes its own roots, it soon becomes
independent of the older parts. And after a certain age, a portion
annually dies off behind, about as fast as it increases at the growing
end, death followin