224 ABSORPTION OF WATER BY EPIPHYTES. 
American Campelia Zanonia, belonging to the Commelynacez, represented on the 
right side of the same figure, and also several tree-ferns, display this velvety 
Fig. 51.—Aeérial Roots with root-hairs; on the left Philodendron Lindeni, on the right Campelia Zanonia. 
coating on their aerial roots. The roots of the tree-ferns are short, but spring in 
thousands from the thick stem, and are so closely packed that the whole surface is 
clothed as it were by a woven mantle of rootlets. After some time these aérial 
roots turn deep brown, whilst the hairs collapse and die, and both are converted 
