116 



Our Field and Forest Trees 



from the earth — the mineral part — comes in 

 by way of the rootlets, in this earth water. The 

 thicker roots merely fasten the tree to the ground. 



If the rootlets which live deep down were to 

 gather water from the earth about them in the 

 winter season, this water would do the trees no 

 good. It could not rise through the cold wood to 

 the branches and the buds. The branches do not 

 want food or drink — they are all 

 asleep. So in winter the rootlets, 

 busy little providers, needs must 

 take a long holiday. 



When spring draws near, the 

 root-tips down below the frozen 

 ground prepare for action. Their 

 busy season is coming, and nature 

 gives to each of them a set of tools. 

 Out of every root-end grow a num- 

 ber of short cobwebby threads, 

 (Fig. 29). All together they look 

 like a narrow band of 

 short white fur 

 wrapped about every 

 fine root, just above 

 its tip. 



A plant gets a set of tools like these in its 

 earliest youth, so that a good way to see the little 

 threads is to sow seeds of radish or squash in 

 damp moss. Though each thread is finer than a 

 hair (they are called "root hairs"), each of 



Fig. 29. A, Seedling maple of the 

 natural size, showing the root hairs; 

 B, A bit of the end of the root 

 magnified. 



