In Winter Woods 391 
from its highest to its lowest point, is enfolded 
with a slumber-robe of cork, which keeps the vege- 
table juices in and helps to keep the cold out. 
When spring comes to wake the earth, the deeper 
layers of soil feel the sweet influence while the 
a 
SEB 
Fic. ror.—Lengthwise section of a root-tip, showing root-hairs. 
(Much magnified.) 
(From the Vegetable World.) 
surface is still ice-bound. Then the least root-tips, 
far underground, cast off their slumber-robes and 
begin to absorb moisture from the soil, which seldom 
freezes for more than forty inches below the 
surface, even in the bitterest weather. And all 
winter, alive but sleeping, a group of active cells 
