OF THE ROOT. 9$ 



but once, whether that event takes place the second 

 year, as usual, or whether, from unfavourable circum- 

 stances, it may happen to be deferred to any future 

 time. This is often the case with the Lavatera aborea, 

 Tree Mallow, Engl. Bot. t. 1841, and some other 

 plants, especially when growing out of their natural soil 

 or station. Linnaeus justly observes that however har- 

 dy with respect to cold such plants may prove before 

 they blossom, they perish at the first approach of the 

 succeeding winter, nor can any artificial heat preserve 

 them. This is, no doubt, to be attributed to the ex- 

 haustion of their vital energy by flowering. Several 

 plants of hot climates, naturally perennial and even 

 shrubby, become annual in our gardens, as the Tropieo- 

 lum^ Garden Nasturtium. 



In the Turnip, and sometimes the Carrot, Parsnep, 

 &c., the Caudcx or body of the root is above-ground 

 and bare, becoming as it were a stem. Linnaeus indeed 

 calls the stems of trees " roots above-ground ;" but 

 this seems paradoxical and scarcely correct. Perhaps it 

 would be more accurate to say the caudex is a subter- 

 raneous stem ; but we rather presume it has functions 

 distinct from the stem, analogous, as has been hinted p, 

 75, to digestion, at least in those plants whose stems arc 

 annual though their roots are perennial. 



The fibres of the root, particularly those extremities of 

 them which imbibe nourishment from the, earth, are in 

 every case strictly annual. During the winter, oi torpid 

 season of the year, the powers of roots lie dormant, 

 which season therefore is proper for their transpianra- 

 tion. After they hav© begun t© throw out new fiijies, 



