THE ROOT. 27 



that it is a group of growing fibres which taste and suck what 

 is good for the plant out of the ground, and by their united 

 strength hold it in its place : only remember the thick limbs 

 of roots do not feed, but only the fine fibres at the ends of 

 them which are something between tongues and sponges, and 

 while they absorb moisture readily, are yet as particular about 

 getting what they think nice to eat as any dainty little boy or 

 girl ; looking for it everywhere, and turning angry and sulky 

 if they don't get it. 



10. But the root has, it seems to me, one more function, 

 the most important of all. I say, it seems to me, for observe, 

 what I have hitherto told you is all (I believe) ascertained and 

 admitted ; this that I am going to tell you has not yet, as far 

 as I know, been asserted by men of science, though I believe 

 it to be demonstrable. But you are to examine into it, and 

 think of it for yourself. 



There are some plants which appear to derive all their food 

 from the air which need nothing but a slight grasp of the 

 ground to fix them in their place. Yet if we were to tie them 

 into that place, in a framework, and cut them from their roots, 

 they would die. Not only in these, but in all other plants, 

 the vital power by which they shape and feed themselves, 

 whatever that power may be, depends, I think, on that slight 

 touch of the earth, and strange inheritance of its power. It 

 is as essential to the plant's life as the connection of the head 

 of an animal with its body by the spine is to the animal. 

 Divide the feeble nervous thread, and all life ceases. Nay, in 

 the tree the root is even of greater importance. You will not 

 kill the tree, as you would an animal, by dividing its body or 

 trunk. The part not severed from the root will shoot again. 

 But in the root, and its touch of the ground, is the life of it. 

 My own definition of a plant would be "a living creature 

 whose source of vital energy is in the earth " (or in the water, 

 as a form of the earth ; that is, in inorganic substance). There 

 is, however, one tribe of plants which seems nearly excepted 

 from this law. It is a very strange one, having long been 

 noted for the resemblance of its flowers to different insects ; 

 and it has recently been proved by Mr. Darwin to be depend- 



