LECT. V.] THE ROOT. 191 



from the tree on which it originally grew, and is 

 suspended in the ceiling of an apartment *. Many 

 aquatic plants, also, have roots which serve no 

 other purpose than to fix them for a short time to 

 the spot where they have germinated, from which 

 they afterwards separate and float upon the surface 

 of the water; thus the common Duck Weed, 

 Lemna minor, which rises to the surface almost as 

 soon as it has germinated, has filiform roots from 

 three to six inches in length, which hang perpen- 

 dicularly in the water, and having no attachment 

 to any body, allow the plant to float freely in every 

 direction. 



* Mr. Macnab, superintendent of the Botanic Garden at 

 Edinburgh, has published an account of a suspended plant of 

 Ficus Australis (Ferrugineous Fig), which had grown for 

 eight months, up to the time of publishing his paper, February 

 7th, 1820, without earth, in the stove of that garden. The plant, 

 which was originally growing in a pot in the greenhouse, on 

 being removed into the stove, and treated in a peculiar manner, 

 threw out several roots from the stem ; after which the earth 

 was gradually removed from the original roots, and the plant 

 left suspended in the air, affixed to the frame of the stove. 

 Water was, however, sprinkled over the whole plant every day. 

 " What," adds Mr. Macnab, "may appear rather remarkable 

 is, that though this Ficus is a plant by no means free in pro- 

 ducing fruit in the usual way of cultivating it, this specimen, 

 quite suspended, without a particle of earth, was loaded with Figs 

 during the months of September, October, and part of No- 

 vember. 1 * Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. iii. p. 77. 



