NOTE ON RASPBERRY ROOTS. 207 
There can be no doubt as to the fact of these curious curvatures 
when plants are grown in leaf-mould, or of the advantage which 
the give-and-take of the root spirals will afford to the stem when 
shaken or pulled by animals passing through. It is, however, 
almost impossible to prove that the free part of the roots coils in 
this way through cireumnutation only, The most recent paper 
by Professor Macdougal,? of which we have only seen an abstract, 
seems to show that, if a stimulus be applied to a very young root 
cell, its effects may remain dormant for a considerable period. 
These coiled roots may, when very young, have been in contact 
with stones, and the result would only appear when they are 
mature. Stones are, however, not common in leaf-mould. 
One might also say, that if the young root were ever so slightly 
coiled, the subsequent contraction described above would ac- 
centuate these curves, and produce spirals. But this slight 
coiling would be simply circumnutation in an early condition, 
On the whole, the simplest explanation seems to be that 
the root, when firmly fixed, behaves in this case exactly in the 
same way as the tendrils, and the result is a very perfect 
mechanical adaptation to its surroundings. 
1 Macdougal, Botanical Gazette, Vol. XXIII., 1897, No. 5. 
