THE ROOT 31 



imitates the burying-beetle ; for he covers the manure 

 with soil, and thus prevents the sun from drying it 

 up. He sends to lonely islands where bird-droppings 

 have accumulated for ages, and brings home the guano 

 for his fields. He buys bones from the butcher, and 

 grinds them into dust, and scatters the bone-dust on 

 his ground. 



9. How Nature seeks fresh soil for her plants. 

 But Nature has another plan for getting fresh food for 

 the roots : she moves the plants from time to time. 

 Sometimes, as in the case of a travelling bulb, she 

 moves the plant a little way every year ; at other 

 times, as in the case of the thistle, the new plant 

 springs up from seed that has travelled a great way. 



Then there are the creeping- stem 

 plants that root at the joints. When 

 the old root dies, the new roots, in 

 fresh soil, are able to continue the 

 plant's life, Make experiments with 

 couch grass, buffalo grass, or with the 

 runners of the strawberry plant, and 

 you will see this for yourself. Watch, 



New bulb forming '^ ^ 



at 'be side of the too, the suckers thrown up by the 

 roots of a poplar, an elm or a pear 

 tree. In all these cases Nature is sucking fresh soil 

 for her plants. 



10. Again, if you dig up all the plants in a piece of 

 ground that has never been touched by man, you will 

 find that some of the roots are surface-feeders, and 

 that others go deep. In this way, all the root-food, 

 shallow and deep, is made use of. Even when the 

 roots of two plants seem to be feeding at the same 

 level on the same soil, the one plant may be using one 



