BLOOD-ROOT. 15 



like a hidden storehouse underground. So when the warm spring 

 sun melts the locks and chains of frosty winter, and sets free the 

 whole imprisoned kingdom of plants, none are sooner ready to 

 come forth and smile a welcome to the great Liberator than the 

 red-footed, white-breasted Sanguinaria. 



The flower stays not long, and the plant, after producing the 

 early harvest of seeds, surrenders, as just now indicated, most of 

 the growing season to the prudent accumulation of sustenance for 

 next year's flowering and fruit bearing. So it makes to-day render 

 tribute to to-morrow, as to-day itself is in part the product of yes- 

 terday. Thus its little life links its generations together with 

 mutual helpfulness, and mingles the common and popular blessing 

 of receiving with the greater blessedness of giving. 



Concerning the blood-red liquid which freely exudes when the 

 stem or root-stalk is cut or broken, and which gives the popular 

 as well as the scientific name to Sanguinaria, Prof. Goodale 

 says: "In the case of nearly all plants from which a white 

 or colored juice exudes, there is a special system of microscopic 

 canals, consisting either of branched cells or confluent tubes, 

 termed the Latex system. Thus in the Euphorbias, Lettuce and 

 Poppy, the milky juice is contained in communicating Latex-tubes. 

 But in some other cases, for example blood-root, the colored juice 

 is held in receptacles of a different character. In blood-root these 

 special receptacles are roundish or more elongated, and possess 

 very thin walls. While some of these sacs or cells are separated 

 from each other, others are arranged in rows. This grouping 

 into linear series is well marked in the more superficial parts." 

 The colored juice of the Sanguinaria was used by the Indians 

 as a dye. 



