8o THE COTTON PLANT IN EGYPT ch. 



lit 



This level coincided with the maximum height of the water- 

 table, which had been maintained for ten days at the end 

 of September, and again for a day or two about October 

 20th. Side by side with these brown and partly decom- 

 posed roots, which had been traced unbroken from the 

 surface of the ground, there were clean, white, new roots 

 in abundance, which terminated at various depths up to 

 210 cm. On following these new roots upwards they 

 were found to arise from those laterals which had not 

 been reached by the water-table. When the fall of the 

 water-table began at the end of October, these healthy 

 laterals had broken out into hundreds of tertiaries of all 

 sizes (Figs. 35, 38), which all turned downwards, following 

 the flight of the water-table, and reconquered the invaded 

 territory. The effect of this reconquest is shown above 

 ground by renewed growth of the stems in November 

 on a falling temperature-curve. 



