163 
remember that the earth food is carried up the stem to 
the leaves in a watery broth; and that if the water 
supply should give out, the new plant cells would not 
get the broth which helps them to grow, and to put out 
other cells, and so to build up the plant. 
Now, as only the new root branches, near their tips, 
are able to drink, if the water should leak through 
the earth in equal quantities 
everywhere, much of it would 
be wasted; but when this 
water is collected in certain 
spots within reach of the new 
root branches, there is good 
reason to believe that these 
will be able to satisfy their 
thirst. | 
By the shedding of the rain 
from the tips of the spreading 
branches above, the water is 
collected in a ring, and so 
sinks into the earth; and the 
root branches below spread 
out in just the same direction 
as the tree branches above, till they find what they 
need, and drink their fill. 
So by the way in which a tree sheds the rain, you 
can tell just where its root branches reach out under- 
ground. 
In smaller plants you see much the same thing. 
Fig. 138 shows a plant called the Caladium. You can 
see that the raindrops must roll outward down these 
