I THE PLANT AND WATER 5 



it in a vessel containing some water in which a 

 little eosine red * has been dissolved. 



The water, you will notice, is coloured a bright 

 red by the eosine, and we shall therefore be able to 

 tell if the water is sucked up by the roots, because if 

 it is we should be able to follow its path through the 

 plant by means of the red dye. 



We cannot see anything going on at first, but if 

 we examine the plant after some twelve hours we 

 shall find all the fine veins in the leaves stained 

 red, showing that the water, carrying with it the dye, 

 has passed through the roots, up the stem, and into 

 the leaves. 



Let us now vary this experiment, and see what 

 we can learn from it. 



Experiment 5 



Take a young plant as before, and shake off the soil 

 from the roots. Next take a bottle with a fine tube 

 fixed in near the bottom, and rising up the side of 

 the bottle, as shown in the drawing. Then boil 

 some water, cool it, and pour it into the bottle, so 

 as to fill it up to the neck. Next place the roots 

 of the plant in the bottle, and run some melted 

 bees'-wax into the neck of the bottle round the stem 

 of the plant. 



The plant is now cemented into the bottle. 

 Place the plant out in the sun, taking care to shade 



1 A penny packet of aniline dye will do. 



