THE PALM-ROOT. 45 



OF THE ROOT OF THE PALMS. 

 Form of the Root. 



The full-grown Palm-stem is never furnished with a 

 tap-root, but its inferior portion, rounded off like a bulb, 

 is clothed with a quantity of fibrous, branching roots. 

 These roots are always slender, not very long, beset in 

 an irregular manner with slender lateral branches, cylin- 

 drical, obtuse at the extremities, in the young condition 

 white, and subsequently brownish. Their young shoots 

 are clothed with fine hairs ; sometimes short spinous 

 elevations occur on the root, which are to be regarded as 

 abortive lateral branches. The germinating Palm has a 

 tap-root, but this attains no considerable size. Shortly 

 after germination, side roots are developed from the base 

 of the stem ; the tap-root disappears, and after a time 

 the first side roots also die away, and are replaced by 

 new rootlets, which spring out in a circle above the earlier 

 ones. This process is repeated in a manner analogous 

 to that in the bulbous plants, Although the roots arise 

 very closely crowded together, yet the subterraneous por- 

 tion of the stem soon becomes completely covered with 

 roots, and the new ones then arise, as in Pandanus, 

 above ground. In this way it often happens that the 

 stem stands raised free above the surface of the earth, 

 merely supported by the roots ; for example, in Iriartea 

 exorhiza. 



The formation and first development of the roots occur 

 in the interior of the stem, between the fibrous layer and 

 the developed vascular bundles. In this place is formed 

 a nucleus of cellular tissue (a true bud), which acquires 

 the shape of a root, and breaks through the rind. Such 

 buds of future roots may be found in considerable abun- 



