30 PKOSEKP1NA. 



dough, and holds the rock, not in a claw, but in a wooden 

 cast or mould, adhering to its surface. And thus it not 

 only finds its anchorage in the rock, but binds the rocks of 

 its anchorage with a constrictor cable. 



7. Hence and this is a most important secondary func- 

 tion roots bind together the ragged edges of rocks as a 

 hem does the torn edge of a dress : they literally stitch the 

 stones together ; so that, while it is always dangerous to 

 pass under a treeless edge of overhanging crag, as soon as 

 it has become beautiful with trees, it is safe also. The 

 rending power of roots on rocks has been greatly overrated. 

 Capillary attraction in a willow wand will indeed split 

 granite, and swelling roots sometimes heave considerable 

 masses aside, but on the whole, roots, small and great, bind, 

 and do not rend.* The surfaces of mountains are dis- 

 solved and disordered, by rain, and frost, and chemical 

 decomposition, into mere heaps of loose stones on their 

 desolate summits ; but, where the forests grow, soil accu- 

 mulates and disintegration ceases. And by cutting down 

 forests on great mountain slopes, not only is the climate 

 destroyed, but the danger of superficial landslip fearfully 

 increased. 



8. The second function of roots is to gather for the 

 plant the nourishment it needs from the ground. This is 



* As the first great office of the mosses is the gathering of earth, sc 

 that of the grasses is the binding of it. Theirs the Enchanter's toil, 

 not in vain, making ropes out of sea-sand. 



