54 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE ROOTS OF PLANTS. 



The Roots of the Algae, of the Zostera marina, of the Sand-reed, of the South 

 African Creepers The Roots of the Forest Trees Aerial Roots of the Man- 

 groves Their Influence on the Formation of Tropical Deltalands Radical 

 Filaments Spongioles Properties of Vegetable Mould The Fertilising In- 

 fluence of Winter. 



EXPOSED to the influences of every climate and destined to grow 

 in every soil, children of the sea, the dry land, and the air, the 

 plants needed a wonderful pliability of organisation to be able 

 to adapt themselves to the numberless modifications of the ex- 

 ternal world, resulting from their universal distribution over the 

 surface of the globe. 



As each animal is armed at all points against hostile attacks, 

 or provided with all the organs it requires for waging the battle 

 of life, thus also every plant, wherever it may grow, has been 

 endowed with the means of maintaining its existence against a 

 host of adverse influences ; and each of its parts and organs its 

 roots, its stem, its leaves, its flowers, its fruit is in every case 

 a masterpiece of adaptation to the circumstances under which it 

 is destined to flourish. 



Thus also the study of each vegetable organ gives the philo- 

 sophical observer equal opportunities of admiring the profound 

 wisdom which presided over its formation, and in his eyes the 

 perfection of nature reveals itself as eloquently in the homely 

 root as in the gayest blossom expanding its gorgeous colours to 

 the sun. 



See the vile seaweed, exposed to all the vicissitudes of the 

 tides; fixed on a solid rock, it is unable to plunge its roots into 

 the stone to which it adheres ; and yet they are such excellent 

 holdfasts, that even a violent storm is hardly able to sever the 

 connection, and cast the plant ashore like a ship torn from its 



