FORM OF ROOTS. 



Fig. 1. Fusiform, or spindle-shaped. It is simple or in one 

 piece as beet, carrot, radish, &c., or branched, at the lower 

 If part, as in the mandrake, and consists of the body and radicles 

 M or fibres which absorb nourishment and are therefore the true root. 

 w In perennial plants these fibres are renewed annually. They are 

 produced early in spring; the best time therefore for transplanting trees 

 is in autumn. The effect of cultivation on many acrid and poisonous 

 roots is to render them wholesome and nutritious. Thus the wild 

 parsnip and carrot have large stems containing an acrid juice, and 

 their roots are deleterious, hard, and dry. This root may be abrupt. 



Fig. 2. Abrupt, or premose root, signifying bitten, 

 as plantain, violet, etc., devil's bit said to have been 

 bitten oif by the devil, out of spite on finding it a useful 

 medicine. These roots are not, however, abrupt until 

 after they are a year old, being at first spindle-shaped 

 the lower part then decaying and separating ; after which the lateral 

 branches shoot out. 



Fig. 3. Branched root, the most common of all, and be- 

 longing to trees and many annual and biennial plants, all 

 terminating in radicles. It resembles the branches of a tree, 

 from which it differs but little, except in growing under 

 ground. Many will grow on being pulled up and the tree inverted, 

 bearing branches, leaves and fruit, while the tops shoot out fibrous 

 roots, as with the willow, a limb of which being bent and both ends 

 inserted in the ground, will each take root, and branches will spring 

 from the circle. The limbs of shrubs being thus bent down into the 

 ground and after a time cut off, form a new plant. Trees are divided 

 and multiplied in China by removing in the spring an inch or two of 

 the bark of a limb. The naked place is then covered with moist 

 earth, secured by a slip of matting. Over this is suspended a vessel 

 of water with a small hole in its bottom which keeps the earth moist. 

 In the autumn small roots will have shot into the earth when the 

 limb is sawed off just below this place and set in the ground and con- 

 tinues to bear fruit. Dwarfs of the smallest size may thus be formed. 



Fig. 4. Fibrous root, common to most of the grasses and 

 many annual plants. It is calculated for a light sandy soil, 

 sing thread-like and presenting numerous points for ab- 

 sorption. 



Fig. 5. Tuberous or knotted root, consisting of knobs 

 connected by fibres. Some are perennial, as the Jeru- 

 salem artichoke or annual, as the potato. They are 

 and fleshy as the potato, etc., the source of mois- 

 , food and vital energy. The Orchis, etc., have 

 two tubers. In some they are crowded (grumose) as in the Orphis or 

 fasciculated, as in asphodel, etc. 



