36 



BOOTS. 



[SECTION 5. 



Spindle-shaped, or Fusiform, whea thickest ia the middle and tapering to 

 both ends ; as the common Jladish (Pig. 85). 



76. These examples are of primary roots. It wUl be seen that turnips, 

 carrots, and the like, are not pure root throughout ; for the oaulicle, from 

 tlie lower end of whioli the root grew, partakes of the thickening, perhaps 

 also some joints of stem above : so the bud-bearing and growing top is 

 stem. 



77. A fine example of secondary roots (67), some of which remain fibrous 

 fur absorption, while a few thicken and store up food for the next season's 

 growth, is furnished by the Sweet Potato (Fig. 86). As stated above, 

 lliese are used for propagation by cuttings; for any part will produce ad- 

 ventitious buds and shoots. The Dahlia produces fascicled (i. c. clustered) 

 fusifonu roots of the same kind, at the base of the stem (Fig. 87) : but 

 these, like most roots, do not produce adventitious buds. The buds by 

 wliich Daldias are propagated belong to the surviving base of the stem 

 above. 



78. Anomalous Boots, as they may be called, are those which subserve 

 other uses than absorption, food-storing, and fixing the plant to the soil. 



Aerial Roots, i. e. those that strike from stems in the open air, are 

 common in moist and warm 

 climates, as in the Mangrove 

 which reaches the coast of 

 Florida, the Banyan, and, less 

 strikingly, iu some herbace- 

 ous plants, sucli as Sugar 

 Cane, and even in Indian 

 Corn. Such roots reach the 

 ground at lengtli, or tend to 

 do so. 



Aerial Rootlets are abun- 

 dautly produced by many 

 climbiug plants, such as the 

 Ivy, Poison Ivy, Trumpet 

 Creeper, etc., springing from 

 the side of stems, which they 

 fasten to trunks of trees, 

 walls, or other supports. 

 These are used by the plant 

 for climbing. 



79. Epiphytes, or Air- 

 Plants (Fig. 88), are called by the former name because commonly growing 



Fig. 88. Epiphytes of Florida and Georgia, viz., Epidendrum ooDopseum, a 

 small Orchid, and Tillandsia nsneoidcs, the so-called Long Moss or Black Moss, 

 which is no tooss, but a flowering plant, also T. recurvata : ou a bough of Live Oak, 



