32 THE NATURE AND WORK OF PLANTS 



a dozen seeds of wheat or oats or radish on the blot- 

 ting-paper and cover with a glass dish. After ger- 

 mination has proceeded for two or three days, take 

 up one of the seedlings and hold between the win- 

 dow and the eye. Innumerable fine hairs are seen 

 projecting from the roots on all sides. If these 

 were examined with a hand lens, they would be seen 

 to be small tubes. Compare the number of root- 

 hairs near the tip with those of the basal portion of 

 the root : where are they most plentiful ? The tubes 

 are the shape of a finger of a glove, and when thrust 

 in among the hard particles of the soil they take 

 irregular shapes and adhere very closely to the bodies 

 they touch, as may be seen if a thin layer of sand 

 is placed on the paper at the beginning of the 

 experiment. 



35. Action of roots which have been deprived of 

 hairs. Perhaps the best method of illustration of 

 the uses of root-hairs is to note the action of a 

 root from which they have been taken. To do this 

 remove a young sunflower plant from the ground 

 and shake and brush all of the soil from the roots. 

 This will carry off all the root-hairs, but if per- 

 formed carefully, will not otherwise injure the roots. 



