14 Rev. P. Keith mi the Structure of Living Fabrics. 



reader will find a full and particular account in Gerard's great 

 work, who seems to have believed all that he relates, and 

 treats the subject as if he loved it*. One thing he has omitted: 

 If prepared in a particular manner, and secretly attached to, 

 or concealed in, the dress of any one, it was believed to have 

 the singular property of exciting, by means of due manage- 

 ment, a violent attachment, in the breast of the wearer, to 

 the person who had thus concealed it. This belief is still a 

 vulgar error among the ignorant and superstitious, though the 

 sinking of the one knob, and the swimming of the other, have 

 been accounted for from the regular operation of natural 

 causes, and the mystery and magic charm of the phenomenon 

 thus altogether dissolved. 



Such are the principal sorts of roots distinguished by bo- 

 tanists, at least as regarding the general outline of their figure ; 

 all of which when inspected more closely will be found to be 

 furnished with a number of minute and lateral fibres, which 

 are themselves furnished with a number of minute and se- 

 condary fibrils, forming the chevelure of the root, and termi- 

 nating ultimately in soft, bibulous, and club-shaped appen- 

 dages, which, from their ready capacity of absorbing fluids, 

 have obtained the name of spongioid:, or little sponges. 



The Trunk. — The trunk, or caudex ascendens of Linnaeus, 

 is that part of the plant which springs immediately from the 

 root, and ascends in a vertical position above the surface of 

 the soil, supporting the branches, and constituting for the 

 most part the principal bulk of the individual. It is a term 

 taken from the Latin tnincus, and has the same signification 

 among botanists which it had among the ancient classics. 



OHm truncus eram ficulnus. — Hor. lib. i. Sat. viii. 1. 

 As applicable to the higher orders of plants it is distinguished 

 into three species, the Stem, the Culm, and the Stipe. 



The stem is the trunk of trees, shrubs, under-shrubs, and 

 the greater part of herbs. It is cylindrical and tapering, as in 

 the oak and elm ; or compressed, as in flat-stalked Pondweed ; 

 or triangular, as in some species of Carex ; or jointed, as in 

 the Pink, and the Grasses. It is also further distinguished as 

 being simple or compound, solid or tubular, upright or nod- 

 ding, creeping, climbing, and twining. Of these varieties the 

 last three are the most remarkable. First, the creeping stem, 

 which being too feeble to support itself in an upright position, 

 extends or creeps horizontally along the surface of the earth, 

 and sends down roots at regular intervals, to extract from the 

 soil new supplies of nourishment. It is exemplified in Poten- 



1 Historic of Plants, p. 207. 



