56 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



nourishment (Figs. 7, 8, and 9). Without water, 

 as we all know, plants will wither and die; and 



the roots push down- 

 ward and outward in 

 every direction in 

 search of this neces- 

 sary of life for the 

 leaves and flowers. 



In addition to these 

 two functions of fixing 

 the plant and drinking 

 water, however, roots 

 perform a third and al- 

 most more important 

 one in absorbi7ig the oth- 

 er needful materials 

 of plant life from the 

 soil about them. They 

 drink, not water alone, 

 but other things dis- 

 solved in it. 



What are these oth- 

 ' / „ -,.' er things? Well, the 



Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. o. ^ .1 ^ 



^ ^ ^ answer to that ques- 



FiG 7.-Root of the carrot. Fig. tion will fairly round 



8. — Root of the frogbit, floating rr r- ^ u • j 



in water. Fig. g.-Root of thi off our first rough idea 



radish. The small hair-Uke ends of the raw materials 



food^saUs."^^^^' ^""^ ^^^^«i^^d that life is made up 



from. We saw already 

 that plants eat carbon and hydrogen from the air 

 and water; out of these they manufacture a large 

 number of compounds, such as starches, oils, 

 sugars, and so forth, all of which contain a little 

 oxygen, but far less than the amount contained in 

 the carbonic acid and water from which they are 



