PLANT-LIFEFORMATION. 209 



evenly distributed in the soil. So the leaf 

 and branch can be more orderly and straight 

 in the regular air and sunshine than the root, 

 which has to increase its surface by a vast 

 number of hair-fibres reaching out their little 

 mouths for water and nutriment on all sides. 

 Underground there can be no flattened leaf, 

 which has simply to extend its hand and re- 

 ceive directly the downpour of rain and shine. 

 Many kinds of roots have been described and 

 figured in the books; but here we need only 

 note the fact, so characteristic of the vegetal 

 principle, that any part of the Plant seems 

 capable of being metamorphosed, under right 

 conditions, into the root. We have hitherto 

 spoken of soil roots; but the other elements, 

 air and water, produce roots in certain Plants 

 (instances are the duckweed as water-plant 

 and the orchid as air plant). The same Plant 

 has been known to change its root from one 

 element to another. Moreover the aerial 

 branch of the banyan, the East-Indian fig 

 tree, drops to the earth and takes root, chang- 

 ing to a new stem also. Thus we observe a 

 part of the Plant becoming not only another 

 part, but the total Plant, which even as nor- 

 mal is not possessed of a strong, self-assert- 

 ing individuality compared to the Animal. 

 The root, babe-like, has to take its food in 

 solution from the soil, and this gives, to the 



