34 PROSERPINA. 



will indeed split granite, and swelling roots some- 

 times heave considerable masses aside, but on the 

 whole, roots, small and great, bind, and do not rend.* 

 The surfaces of mountains are dissolved and dis- 

 ordered, by rain, and frost, and chemical decomposi- 

 tion, 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 super- 

 ficial landslip fearfully increased. 



8. The second function of roots is to gather for 

 the plant the nourishment it needs from the ground. 

 This is partly water, mixed with some kinds of air 

 (ammonia, etc.), but the plant can get both water 

 and ammonia from the atmosphere ; and, I believe, 

 for the most part does so ; though, when it cannot 

 get water from the air, it will gladly drink by its 

 roots. But the things it cannot receive from the 

 air at all are certain earthy salts, essential to it 

 (as iron is essential in our own blood), and of 

 which, when it has quite exhausted the earth, no 

 more such plants can grow in that ground. On 

 this subject you will find enough in any modern 



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

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

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



