OF THE ROOT. 



4th. Creeping Root, (Fig. 16.) This roof, 

 instead of forcing its way perpendicularly 

 into the earth, extends horizontally, and 

 sends out fibres, as maybe seen in the Straw 

 berry. It is very tenacious of life, as any part 

 of it, containing a joint, will grow. This root 

 is sometimes useful, by the fibres spreading 

 and interlacing themselves, and thus render- 

 ing a soil more permanent. Holland would 

 be Uable to be washed away by the action Oi 

 ^ water, were it not that its 

 coasts are bound together 

 by these creeping plants. 

 This root will grow in 

 sandy, light soils, which 

 scarcely produce any oth- 

 er vegetation. 



5th. Granulated 

 Boot, (Fig. 17.) 

 This consists of 

 little bulbs or tu- 

 bers, stnmg toge- 

 >^ ther by a thread- 

 ^\ like radicle ; this 

 I'l^ form approaches 

 to that of some 

 varieties of the 

 tuberous. 

 6th. Tuberous Root. This 

 kind of root is hard, sohd, 

 and fleshy; it consists of 

 one knob or tuber ; as in 

 the potato, a ; or of many 

 such, connected by strings 

 or filaments, as in the arti- 

 choke, b. These tubers are 

 reservoirs of moisture,nour- 

 ishment, and vital energy 

 The potato is in reahty but 

 an excrescence,proceeding 

 from the real root ; and it is 

 a singular fact that this nu- 

 tritious substance is the pro- 

 duct of a plant whose fruit 

 (often termed potato bahs) 

 is poisonous. The root of 

 some of the orchis plants, 

 (Fig. 18. c.) consists of two 

 tubers, resembling the two 

 lobes into which a bean may 

 be divided. Tuberous roots 

 are knobbed, as in the potato, oval, as in the orchis, abrupt, as in the 

 plantain, fasciculated, when several are bundled together, as in the 

 asparagus, and several species of orchis. 



Creeping roof— Its impunanre in Holland— Granulated root— Tuberous root — Tu« 

 bers, as the potato, not lliu real root— Diift-rent kinds of tuberous roots. 



