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. 



