stalks, flowers, and fruit, the next summer. Examples. Car- 

 rot. Parsnip, arid Cabbage. These decay the second year. 



Perennial roots produce herbage, flowers, and seeds during 

 many successive years, or for an indefinite period of time. 

 Ex. Oak, Chestnut, Pear and Orange. 



Some trees continue to live, grow, and bear new leaves,, 

 flowers, and fruit, for hundreds of years. Such are the Ce- 

 dar, Oak. and Olive. 



Roots are distinguished by botanists into several kinds, de- 

 pending on their shapes. 



Fusiform, or spindle root, Fig. 1, (Radix fusifor- Fi s- 

 mis) from fusus, a spindle. This root is thick 

 above, or near the surface of the earth, but gradu- 

 ally diminishes as it shoots into the ground. It is 

 generally simple, or consists of one undivided piece, 

 but is sometimes branched towards the lower ex- 

 tremity. Ex. Parsnip, Carrot, Beet, and Radish. 



Although the bulky part of the Carrot and Beet 

 is commonly termed the root, yet the true roots, be- 

 ing the parts which absorb the nourishment of the 

 plant from the earth, consists only of the small fibres 

 which are thrown out from the main body. In pe- 

 rennial roots, or trees, these fibres are renewed, or new ones 

 are produced every year. In our climate these parts are pro- 

 duced early in the spring, beginning to shoot nearly as soon 

 as the frost leaves the ground ; hence the best time for trans- 

 planting trees is in the autumn, when the old fibres have 

 ceased to absorb nourishment, and may be torn away or left 

 in the ground without injury, while the new ones have not 

 yet begun to spring. 



The changes produced by cultivation on many roots, are 

 no less than that of converting an acrid, poisonous substance 

 into wholesome, nutritious food. Thus the wild Parsnip, and 

 Carrot, shoot up large stems, which contain a sharp, acrid 

 juice, while their roots are deleterious, and at the same time 

 so hard and dry, as rather to partake of the nature of wood, 

 than of the pulpy, nutritious substance of the cultivated kind. 



What are perennial roots 1 What is the form of a fusiform root ? What 

 arc examples ! What parts constitute the true roots of plants 1 How often 

 are these true roots renewed ] When is. the best time for transplanting 

 trees, and why 1 



