FUNCTION OP THE SPONGIOLES. 81 



of Absorption, has an important practical application. It very 

 commonly happens that, in transplanting shrubs or trees, of which 

 the roots extend a good way into the soil, enough care is not taken 

 to preserve these ; and the plant either languishes for some time, 

 until it is able to form new ones, or dies altogether. It is seldom 

 that, under common treatment, a fruit-tree will bear in the first 

 season after transplantation. The following instance, however, 

 will show what mode of proceeding is directed by the knowledge 

 just communicated, and what success attends it. A gentleman 

 in Shropshire had some valuable vines, which he wished to re- 

 move to a new property on which he was going to live in Nor- 

 folk. He had a trench dug around them, at such a distance as, 

 it was believed, would include all their roots. The earth within 

 this was then removed, not with spades and trowels, but with 

 the fingers, every fibril being thus uncovered without injury. 

 The mass of roots was then wrapt in moist matting ; the vines 

 were carried across England, and then planted ; and in the 

 ensuing season they bore an abundant crop. 



107. It is often observed, that the growth of roots takes 

 place, in the direction best adapted to supply them with moisture ; 

 and it has been supposed that plants possessed a kind of instinct, 

 or consciousness, which caused them to select this. Many of these 

 cases, however, can be explained without having recourse to such 

 a supposition ; and it is probable that, with the advance of know- 

 ledge on this subject, the remainder will be also. In fa,ct, to 

 attribute such an instinct to Plants, is to place them above the 

 lower Animals, which do not exhibit the power of making a 

 choice of this kind. The most common cases are those most 

 easily explained. A plant is in a dry soil, and it sends out its 

 roots into a moister one ; or it is in a garden-pot, and its roots 

 project through the hole at the bottom, into the water which the 

 pan below it may contain, or into the moist earth with which it 

 may be surrounded. Now this is explained upon the following 

 simple principle. The addition which is constantly being made 

 to the extremities of the fibres, takes place in the direction of 

 least resistance; and, when the roots are making their way 

 through a hard dry soil, the direction of least resistance will be 





