S2 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



leaves, retaining the carton and exhaling the oxygen, which they distribute through the 

 same organs in the daytime, mainly, if not exclusively, for the animal world. Thus animals 

 and vegetables are interdependent, and one could not exist without the other. Both 

 must have appropriate foods, with healthy organs for preparing it for assimilation in the 

 system ; and healthy, active roots and leaves are as essential to plants and trees as 

 good teeth and lungs are to man. We now arrive at a starting-point in fruit culture- 

 healthy roots, in a medium from which they can imbibe the requisite constituents for 

 the support of leaves, which must be perfected by solar and atmospheric influences ; and 

 impediments of whatever nature to the functional development of the leaves affect the 

 roots, for neither can suffer alone. So true is this, that the most persistent of weeds, 

 such as dandelions, thistles, couch, bindweed, and others with fleshy roots, if not allowed 

 to make leaves, cannot exist, for the roots die, but not without a struggle, and the leaf 

 prevention must be continued so long as the roots have strength to push growths through 

 the ground. This fact demonstrates the power and importance of leaves and the influ- 

 ence they exert on the roots of plants and trees. It may be useful to some, perhaps 

 many, readers if the different parts of trees, their nature and functions, are referred to 

 separately, if briefly. 



BOOTS AND BRANCHES. 



When a seed germinates the first growth extension is downwards, and is called 

 the radicle, which consists of cellular tissue, as is the ends of all roots spongioles 

 (see a and b, Fig. 1). With the commencement of root growth there is an 

 upward extension; this is the incipient stem or branch. In the course of time 

 the root is strengthened by woody fibres, and extends, branching in the soil in 

 the same way that the growth of a tree above ground divides and occupies space in the 

 air. The roots are, in fact, part of the stem, the hidden counterparts of the visible 

 branches. What is known as the tap-root of a tree that strikes straight down is an 

 elongation of the trunk or main stem. The stout roots that start from the original and 

 fix themselves firmly in the ground are popularly known as " anchor " roots, because of 

 securing the tree in position. The strong dividing branches of the tree correspond with 

 these, and the smaller extensions, both above and below ground, correspond with each 

 other. The soft portions of the roots that form yearly, agree with summer growths of the 

 trees, and both are strong or weak, healthy or unhealthy, together. If the growth of a 

 tire is seriously checked by any cause, so are the roots, and if the extension of these is 



