YampolskY: Stiidy of OU palm. 131 



The Root. 

 General. 



I 



The root of the oil pahn {Etais guineensis JACQ.) like tlie roots of ail 

 palms is an organ which carries on the physiological functions of such 

 organs and it also serves as a means of anchorage. So effective, is tliis 

 anchorage tiiat the tree exposed to the severest strain, caiinot be uprooted. 

 The oil palm in commoii with the coconut palm cannot be uprooted even 

 by the severest storms. BUCHER and FlCKENDEY (^) state that they do no* 

 know of a single case of uprooting in Misahôhe (Togo). It is not surprising 

 that such is the case in view of the texture, the disposition, the number 

 and length of the roots. The roots are tough and elastic and they persist 

 long after the cells hâve died. The roots are attached to the base of the 

 trunk: they radiate in ail directions, ramifying the soil for a considérable 

 distance. BuCHER and FlCKENDEY (l.c.) observed roots 15 M. long and 

 BuCHER traced roots to a depth of 9 M. From the base of the trunk 

 thousands of roots émerge. New ones constantly added, the older ones 

 persist so that the anchorage is continually being strengthened. 



The roots do not vary so very greatly in diameter, 4 to 10 mm. The 

 secondary roots arising from them are naturally smaller and together they 

 form a dense netv^ork. In moist localities the tendency to produce adventi- 

 tious roots is most pronounced. Thèse roots are positively geotropic and 

 eventually they grow into the soil. Thèse adventitious roots may in some- 

 cases émerge at a considérable distance from the ground. BuCHER and 

 FlCKENDEY (l.c.) show a tree with roots 1 Meter above the ground. 

 Whereas COPELAND (^) estimâtes the number of roots attached to the buried 

 part of the stem of a mature coco-nut tree as 8000, the number in a 

 mature oil palm, excluding the adventitious roots, easily equals that 

 number. 



The structure of the root of oil palm does not show any marked 

 departures from the structures of other palm roots which hâve been 

 investigated in such great détail by the older investigators. The work of VON 

 MOHL who contributed the anatomical studies to MARTIUS' (-') monumental 

 work on the palms is indeed a classic in précision and in observation. 

 One of the conspicuous features in the roots of Elaeis when eut in cross 

 section, is the présence of the radiating lacunae or air chambers. Thèse 

 VON MOHL (l.c.) had observed and pictured for the root of Diplothimïiim 

 maritimiim. (Plate 1, Figure 6). 



In the same year 1850 there appeared a posthumous work of Griffith (") 

 on the palms of British East India and there too such a root is pictured 

 for Phoenix syivestris (Plate CCXXVllI, Figures 4 and 5). GRIFFITH de" 

 scribed the section of the root shown in Figure 4 as follows : "Section of a 

 radicle, shewing the existence of large cells between the centre and the 

 cuticle, and the origin of a young radicle from the central part". In Figure 5 



