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 absorbing 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 



Flg . 7 . F.e.8. F,g. 9 . answer S to that ques- 

 FIG. 7. Root of the carrot. FIG. tion will fairly round 

 ^at er' ^ ^Roofof Si off our first rough idea 



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

 drink in water and dissolved that life is made up 

 food-salts. r ,,, 



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 



