94 ELEMENTS OF STRUCTURAL BOTANY. 



contact with and inspection of the forms which are, for 

 the time being, the objects of study. The young student 

 must provide himself with specimens, and learn to 

 associate the descriptive terms with the actual condition 

 which the terms describe. Only in this way can this 

 branch of botanical work be relieved of the element of 

 drudgery, and made what it ought to be a means of 

 developing in a high degree those powers of observation 

 with which the young are so exceptionally endowed. It 

 is believed that with proper management even the 

 more difficult technical terms, which are derived from 

 Latin and Greek, and specially devised for botanical 

 purposes, will be learned without extraordinary effort. It 

 is the writer's experience that a term is insensibly 

 acquired and almost indelibly impressed upon the mind if 

 there is first created the want of the term to describe what 

 is seen when some new form has been the subject of obser- 

 vation, and its peculiarities have been thoroughly grasped 

 through the medium of the eye. With a good many of 

 the terms there will be found no difficulty whatever, 

 since they have the same meaning in their botanical 

 applications as they have in their every-day use. 



131. The Root. This organ is called the descending 

 axis of the plant, from its tendency to grow downward 

 into the soil from the very commencement of its develop, 

 ment. Its chief use is to imbibe liquid nourishment, 

 and transmit it to the stem, from which it is well distin- 

 guished by the presence of the root-cap (Fig. 122, a) .iml 

 the absence of leaves. The absorbing surface of a young 

 root or rootlet is largely increased by the development of 

 root-hairs, the nature of which will be explained later on 

 when we come to treat of trichomes or hair-like growths 



