Rev. P. Keith on the Structure of Living Fabrics, 15 



the point. The root of Scabiosa succisa, better known, per- 

 haps, by the vulgar appellation of DeviPs-bit Scabious, affords 

 an example of the case in question, as well as of the whimsical 

 and superstitious notions of the simplists of ancient times with 

 regard to the virtues of plants. Almost all plants were be- 

 lieved to be possessed of some peculiar and medicinal pro- 

 perties; and the Devil was believed to be, — what it would cer- 

 tainly not have been very orthodox to doubt, — the grand 

 and leading agent in the production of all evil whatsoever 

 affecting the interests of man. Now here was a plant with 

 part of the root bitten off"; and what was the inference that 

 seemed the most probable? Why, that the part wanting, was 

 wanting through the fraud and malice of the Devil, bitten off 

 out of sheer hatred to mankind, and secreted or destroyed on 

 account of the peculiar potency of its medicinal virtues. But 

 unhappily for the patients of modern times, the medicinal vir- 

 tues of this plant do not upon inquiry turn out to be any- 

 thing remarkable, and the deficiency of the part bitten off* 

 has been accounted for in another way. 



Many roots are fibrous or capillary, that is, consisting of 

 several small and thread-like fibres, supporting the plant, not 

 by their individual strength, but by their numbers and distri- 

 bution, elongating in a divergent direction, and riveting down 

 the plant on all sides. Such roots are exemplified in the greater 

 part of the Grasses, as in Wheat, Oats, and Barley. 



Some roots are bulbous, that is consisting of a circular 

 assemblage of small fibres originating in the under surface of 

 a bulb or knob, solid, or composed of a number of succulent 

 coats, or scales, and containing the rudiments of a future plant. 

 They are exemplified in the bulbs of the Crocus, Tulip, and Lily. 



Some roots are tuberous, that is, consisting of a knob or 

 tubercle, furnished with a number of small and scattered fibres, 

 or of a number of such knobs or tubercles, united by means 

 of such fibres, and forming a cluster. If the knob is single, 

 it is generally solid, and of a spherical form, as in Bunium 

 bulbocastanum. If the knobs are not single they are very often 

 in pairs, as in Ophrys spiralis or Ladies' Traces, or in Orchis 

 mascula or Early Orchis. If the knobs of this last species are 

 taken and separated, and then immersed in water, the one 

 will be found to sink, and the other to swim. This is a phae- 

 nomenon that seems also to have puzzled the simplists of an- 

 tiquity not a little, and to have given rise to a great deal of 

 idle and superstitious conjecture. It was believed that the 

 knob which sinks must necessarily have possessed some pe- 

 culiar and potent properties, and accordingly some potent 

 properties were very liberally ascribed to it, of which the 



