STRUCTURE.] LATENT ROOTS, ETC. 237 



place, its ramifications occur irregularly, and not with a 

 symmetrical arrangement : they do not, like branches, pro- 

 ceed from certain fixed points (buds), but are produced from 

 all and any points of the surface. Secondly, a root has no 

 leaf-buds, unless, indeed, as sometimes happens, it has the 

 power of forming adventitious ones ; but, in such a case, the 

 irregular manner in which they are produced is sufficient 

 evidence of their nature.* Thirdly, roots have no scales, 

 leaves, or other appendages j neither do they ever indicate 

 upon their surface, by means of scars, any trace of such : all 

 underground bodies upon which scales have been found are 

 stems, whatever they may have been called. A fourth dis- 

 tinction between roots and stems is, that the former have 

 never any stomates upon their epidermis ; and, finally, in 

 Exogens the root has usually no pith. It has been also said 

 that roots are always colourless, while stems are always 

 coloured; b*t aerial roots are often green, underground stems 

 are colourless ; and many true roots are deeply coloured, as 

 in the Beet and Rhubarb. 



The body of the root is sometimes called the caudex; the 

 minute subdivisions have been sometimes called radicles, a 

 term that should be confined to the root in the embryo; 

 others name them fibrils, a term more generally adopted; 

 while the terms rhizina and rhizula have been given by Link 

 to the young roots of mosses and lichens. 



A fibril is a little bundle of bothrenchym, or sometimes of 

 spiral vessels, encased in woody fibre, and covered by a lax 



* In general the roots of plants are, under natural circumstances, destitute of 

 this power ; and instances to the contrary are regarded as curious exceptions to 

 a common law. Such exceptions are found in the Moutan Peeony, in the Plum 

 tree, the Cydonia japonica, and others ; but in none of them, nor in any other 

 species with which I am acquainted, does the power reside in the same degree 

 as in the Japan Anemone (Anemone japonica). If a root of this plant be taken 

 from the ground after flowering, it will be found to resemble brown cord 

 divided into a vast number of ramifications. Upon its surface will be perceived 

 a great multitude of little white conical projections, some tunes growing singly, 

 sometimes springing up in clusters, and occasionally producing small scales upon 

 their sides. They are young buds, every one of which, if cut from its parent, 

 will grow and form a strong young plant in a few weeks. These buds are not 

 confined to the mam trunk of the root, but extend even towards its extremities ; 

 so that every fragment of the plant is reproductive. (See Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 Jan. 1, 1848, for a figure of this structure). 



