SURFACE MARKINGS 131 



Texture. Roots vary greatly in texture. Texture depends 

 both upon cellular structure and upon cell contents. 



Root texture based upon cellular structure includes the 

 following : fleshy roots which are composed largely of paren- 

 chymatic cells; fibrous roots which are composed of both 

 parenchymatic and fibrous cells; and woody roots which are 

 composed almost entirely of wood fibers. 



Root texture based upon cell contents includes starchy 

 or starch-containing roots, resinous roots and waxy roots. 



Size. The size of roots varies greatly but for each root 

 there is a fairly uniform maximum size. 



Color. The colors of roots in the order of their frequency 

 are gray, yellow, brown, and red. For each kind of root 

 there is a characteristic color. 



Surface Markings. The surface of dried roots may be 

 furrowed, wrinkled, fissured, sunken, cleft, split, keeled, 

 annulated, nodulated, abraded or smooth. The various 

 types of surface result from the internal and external struct- 

 ure and the decrease, in drying, in diameter or length or 

 both. 



The surface is furrowed when it has sharply defined longi- 

 tudinal parallel elevations and depressions. Furrows may 

 form straight parallel lines, as in Mexican sarsaparilla, or they 

 may be spirally arranged, as in scammony root. The surface 

 is wrinkled when it is irregularly contracted into furrows, as 

 in bryony and in pyre thrum. The surface is fissured when it 

 has narrow openings caused by the separation of the tissues. 

 The fissures may be shallow, as in stillingia, or deep, as in 

 Sa vanilla krameria and in Cartagena ipecac. The surface 

 is sunken when it is depressed because of the shrinking of 

 the inner tissue, as in jalap; cleft when it has irregular open- 

 ings caused by the separation of the tissues, as in Russian 

 licorice; split when it has longitudinal breaks in the tissue 



