576 APPENDIX C. 



will become easy and rapid. What further must happen ? When 

 the branch or shoot recoils, the vessels on the side that was convex, 

 being relieved from pressure, will tend to resume their previous 

 diameters ; and will be helped to do this by the elasticity of the 

 surrounding tissue, as well as by those spiral, annular, and allied 

 structures which they contain. But this resumption of their previ 

 ous diameters must cause an immediate rush of sap back into them. 

 Whence will it come ? Not to any considerable extent from the sur 

 rounding tissues into which part of it has been squeezed, seeing that 

 the resistance to the return of liquid through small pores will be 

 greater than the resistance to its return along the vessels themselves. 

 Manifestly the sap which was thrust up and down the vessels from 

 the place of compression will return the quantities returning from 

 above and from below varying, as we shall hereafter see, according 

 to circumstances. But this is not all. From some side a greater 

 quantity must come back than was sent away ; for the amount that 

 has escaped out of the tube into the prosenchyma has to be replaced. 

 Thus during the time when the side of the branch or twig becomes 

 concave, more sap returns from above or below than was expelled 

 upwards or downwards during the previous compression. The 

 refilled vessels, when the next bend renders their side convex, again 

 have part of their contents forced through their parietes, and are 

 again refilled in the same way. There is thus set up a draught of sap 

 to the place where these intermittent strains are going on, an exuda 

 tion proportionate to the frequency and intensity of the strains, 

 and a proportionate nutrition or thickening of the wood- cells, 

 fitting them to resist the strains. A rude idea of this action may 

 be obtained by grasping in one hand a damp sponge, having its 

 lower end in water, while holding a piece of blotting-paper in 

 contact with its upper end, and then giving the sponge repeated 

 squeezes. At each squeeze some of the water will be sent into 

 the blotting-paper ; at each relaxation the sponge will refill from 

 below, to give another portion of its contents to the blotting- 

 paper when again squeezed. 



But how does this explanation apply to roots ? If the formation 

 of wood is due to intermittent transverse strains, such as are pro 

 duced in the aerial parts of upright plants by the wind, how does it 

 happen that woody matter is deposited in roots, where there are no 

 lateral oscillations, no transverse strains ? The answer is, that 

 longitudinal strains also are capable of causing the effects described. 

 It is true that perfectly straight fibres united into a bundle and pulled 

 lengthways would not exert on one another any lateral pressure, and 

 would not laterally compress any similarly-straight canals running 

 along with them. But if the fibres united into a bundle are variously 

 bent or twisted, they cannot be longitudinally strained without com 

 pressing one another and structures imbedded in them. It needs 



