ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. vi. 6-8 



monk's rhubarb ; but some have large side-roots, as 

 celery and beet, and in proportion to their size these 

 root deeper than trees. Again of some the roots are 

 fleshy, as in radish turnip cuckoo-pint crocus ; of 

 some they are woody, as in rocket and basil. And 

 so with most wild plants, except those whose roots 

 are to start with numerous and much divided, as 

 those of wheat barley and the plant specially l called 

 ' grass.' For in annual and herbaceous plants this is 

 the difference between the roots : Some are more 

 numerous and uniform and much divided to start 

 with, but the others have one or two specially large 

 roots and others springing from them. 



To speak generally, the differences in roots are 

 more numerous in shrubby plants and pot-herbs ; 

 2 for some are woody, as those of basil, some fleshy, as 

 those of beet, and still more those of cuckoo-pint 

 asphodel and crocus ; some again are made, as it 

 were, of bark and flesh, as those of radishes and 

 turnips ; some have joints, as those of reeds and 

 dog's tooth grass and of anything of a reedy charac- 

 ter ; and these roots alone, or more than any others, 

 resemble the parts above ground ; they are in fact 

 like 3 reeds fastened in the ground by their fine roots. 

 Some again have scales or a kind of bark, as those of 

 squill and purse-tassels, and also of onion and things 

 like these. In all these it is possible to strip off 

 a coat. 



Now all such plants, seem, as it were, to have two 

 kinds of root ; and so, in the opinion of some, this is 

 true generally of all plants which have a solid 'head' 4 

 and send out roots from it downwards. These have, 



3 i.e. the main root is a sort of repetition of the part 

 above ground. 4 i.e. bulb, corm, rhizome, etc. 



45 



