THE MICROSCOPE AND PLANT LIFE 



which might be mistaken for mould. Our micro- 

 scope will show us that they belong to the root; 

 they are, in fact, root hairs. We shall very likely 

 be able to make out that, like the leaf hairs, each 

 root hair is made up of a single cell. The root hairs 

 are interesting because it is through them that water 

 is taken up by the plant from the soil. 



In many plants a considerable space separates the 

 root from the leaves. When we have learned how 

 to cut sections, we can make slides for our micro- 

 scope which will show us the whole course along 

 which the water travels, from its point of entry 

 at a root hair to its exit at a leaf pore. Although 

 we have not yet reached that stage, it need not 

 prevent us from seeing some of the minute tubes 

 through which the water passes. Any fleshy 

 stemmed plant will serve our purpose. We must 

 tear it to pieces lengthways with a needle and we 

 shall find many threads — this is not their correct 

 name but it expresses our meaning — running the 

 whole length of the stem. They run, in fact, from 

 the tips of the root to the leaf, and may be seen 

 as leaf veins. If we remove one of these threads 

 and tease it with needles on a slide we shall reduce 

 it to still finer threads. By the way, teasing in the 

 sense we have used it here, means separating the 

 various parts. Let us examine some of these fine 

 threads, we shall see that some of them appear like 

 coiled springs at first glance. A more careful ex- 

 amination will show us long tubes with spiral thick- 

 enings. We all know the garden hose-pipe with 



103 



