Micropropagation. Hypodermic syringe taking a sample from one of several test tubes containing plants being grown from a tissue culture. The jelly in the bottom of the test tubes is a sterile soil-substitute containing the nutrients needed by the growing plants. These plants are clones grown from tiny fragments or single cells of a parent" plant in a process called micropropagation. Care- fully controlled conditions cause the fragments to develop into embryos, which then produce roots and shoots like normal seedlings. The technique allows mass agricultural production of genetically identical plants and is an effective way of prop- agating genes introduced into the parent plant."