FIFTEEN MILES OF ROOT. 211 



The roots of lucerne often penetrate to the depth of more 

 than twenty feet, while the tap-roots of trees, continuing 

 to grow for a long period, descend still further. A Brit- 

 ish officer in India reports that the root of a leguminous 

 tree — the Prosopis spicigera — is often dug for economical pur- 

 poses, and that he has seen an excavation sixty-nine feet deep 

 made for such a root without reaching its lower extremity. 

 The roots of trees are well known to extend in a horizontal 

 direction to surprising distances, and to exert a very delete- 

 rious influence on crops in their vicinity. The living roots 

 of an elm, in Amherst, were found in abundance at a distance 

 of seventy-five feet from the trunk, which was just the height 

 of the tree. It has recently been stated in "The Field," 

 an English paper, that the roots of an elm were found to 

 obstruct a tile-drain which was four hundred and fifty feet 

 from the tree. 



But our squash-vine affords the most astonishing demonstra- 

 tion of all that has been said about root-development. Grow- 

 ing under the most favorable circumstances, the roots attained 

 a number and an aggregate length almost incredible. The 



GO o O 



primary root from the seed, after penetrating the earth about 

 four inches, terminated abruptly and threw out adventitious 

 branches in all directions. In order to obtain an accurate 

 knowledge of their development, the entire bed occupied by 

 them was saturated with water, and, after fifteen hours, 

 numerous holes were bored through the plank-bottom, and 

 the earth thus washed away. After many hours of most 

 patient labor, the entire system of roots was cleaned and 

 spread out upon the floor of a large room, where they were 

 carefully measured. The main branches extended from twelve 

 to fifteen feet, and their total length, including branches, was 

 more than two thousand feet. At every node, or joint, of the 

 vine, was also produced a root. One of these nodal roots was 

 washed out and found to be four feet long, and to have four 

 hundred and eighty branches, averaging, with their branch- 

 lets, a length of thirty inches, making a total of more than 

 twelve hundred feet. As there were seventy nodal roots, 

 there must have been more than fifteen miles in length 

 on the entire vine. There were certainly more than eighty 

 thousand feet; and of these, fifty thousand feet must have 



