304 STATE POMO LOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the height of the tree. It has recently been stated in " The Field," an English 

 paper, that the roots of an elm were found to obstruct a tile-drain which was 

 four hundred and fifty feet from the tree. 



FIFTEEN MILES OF ROOTS. 



But our squash-vine affords the most astonishing demonstration of all that 

 has been said about root-development. Growing under the most favorable 

 circumstances, the roots attained a number and an aggregate length almost 

 incredible. The primary root from the seed, after penetrating the earth about 

 four inches, terminated abruptly ana threw out adventitious branches in all 

 directions. In order to obtain an accurate knowledge of their development, 

 the entire bed occupied by them was saturated with water, and, after fifteen 

 hours, numerous holes were bored through the j)lank-bottom, and the earth 

 thus washed away. 



After many hours of most patient labor, the entire system of roots was cleaned 

 and spread out upon the floor of a large room, where they were carefully 

 measured. The main branches extended from twelve to fifteen feet, and their 

 total length, including branches, was more than two thousand feet. At every 

 node, or joint, of the vine, was also produced a root. One of these nodal roots 

 was washed out and found to be four feet long, and to have four hundred and 

 eighty branches, averaging, with their branchlets, a length of thirty inches, 

 making a total of more than twelve hundred feet. As there were seventy 

 nodal roots, there must have been more than fifteen miles in length on the 

 entire vine. There were certainly more than eighty thousand feet; and of 

 these fifty thousand feet must have been produced at the rate of one thousand 

 feet or more per day. 



Now, it has been said, that corn may be heard to grow in a still, Avarm night ; 

 and it has been proved that a root of corn will elongate one inch in fifteen 

 minutes. But here are twelve thousand inches of increase in twenty-four 

 hours! What lively times in tlie soil, where such vital force is at work! The 

 wonder is, we do not hear the building of these roots as it goes on. 



But in addition to the movements caused by the increase of the roots among 

 the particles of the soil, we should remember that solution, chemical affinity, 

 diffusion and capillarity, as well as the absorption of the feeding rootlets, are 

 incessantly at work beneath the surface of the silent earth. With what amaze- 

 ment should we behold the development of a crop upon a fertile field, if we 

 could but see with our eyes the things which are known to transpire! 



Let us next consider some peculiarities of plant-growth which were exhib- 

 ited in the development of the squash-vine, with its appendicular organs, — the 

 leaves and the tendrils, — and its reproductive organs, — the flowers and the 

 fruit. 



THE BUD. 



The peculiar feature of the vegetahh stem is the bud, by which it is always ter- 

 minated, even in the seed. A hud is an aggregation of delicate cells, filled with 

 protoplasm, and endowed with special vitality. Sometimes it is very minute 

 and simple in structure, and sometimes large and complicated. As the stem 

 elongates, it usually produces, at regular intervals, leaves, in the axils of which 

 are formed buds, which in growing become the terminal buds of branches. 

 The places where leaves are borne are called nodes, and the spaces on the stem 

 between these are styled internodes. Every species of plant has a definite law 



