SECT. I. 



THE ROOT. 271 



curus gemculatus; which, when growing in its 

 native marshes, protrudes a fibrous root, though 

 when growing in a very dry situation, as on the 

 top of a dry wall, it is found to be furnished with 

 an ovate and juicy bulb.* This anomaly also 

 seems to be merely the result of a provision of 

 nature by which the plant is endowed with the ca- 

 pacity of collecting a supply of moisture suited to 

 existing circumstances, and hence of adapting itself 

 to the soil in which it grows. 



The roots of Utricularla minor, which consist Bladder, 

 of a number of slender and hair-like filaments roots. * 

 exhibit the singular anomaly of being furnished 

 with a multitude of small and membraneous 

 bladders, each containing a transparent and watery 

 fluid, and a small bubble of air, by means of 

 which the plant is kept floating in the water. 



Some perennials present the anomaly of what The 

 has been called the descending root, which is at 

 first spindle-shaped and perpendicular sending out 

 some lateral fibres ; but dying at the lower extre- 

 mity in the course of the succeeding winter, and 

 protruding new fibres from the remaining portion, 

 and even from the lower portion of the stem, in 

 the course of the following spring, which by des- 

 cending into the soil, draw down the plant with 

 them, so that part of what was formerly stem is 

 now converted into root. This process is repeated 

 every year, and by consequence a portion of the, 

 * Smith's Introduction, p. 113. 



