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any influence upon the plants. The more Care*, 

 therefore, he bestows upon the proper development 

 of the root, the more satisfactory and remunerative 

 will be the result of his labour. 



The fibres of the root are the medium through 

 which the plant assimilates that kind of food which 

 is derived from the soil, and through which it expels 

 the excessive moisture, as well as all those sub- 

 stances which have incidentally entered into the 

 system of the plant, but which it refuses to assimi- 

 late. The rapidity with which the root absorbs 

 water is very great, and it is easy to make one's 

 own observations to demonstrate the fact. 



Let a small plant drawn out of the soil be 

 placed in a tumbler of water, another glass 

 containing a like quantity of water being placed 

 alongside. The water will disappear far more 

 rapidly from the glass containing the plant than 

 from the other ; and if the plant is able to exist at 

 all in water, it will absorb many times its weight. 

 I had a plant of spearmint growing for sixty days 

 in water, and although at the end of that time it 

 weighed only ninety-five grains, it had absorbed 

 not less than fourteen thousand grains of water, or 

 nearly one pint and three-quarters. The plant had 

 therefore retained only a minute portion of this 

 large quantity of water ; the remainder must have 

 been got rid of, mostly by exhalation through the 

 leaves. The reason for this enormous absorption 



