CH. Ill] DEAD ROOTS- 71 



Balsam (Impatiens balsamina). Moll also recommends 

 Begonia and Phaseolus: in the last named the fluid is, 

 as Moll says, found on the lower surface of the leaf 



(91) Absorption by means of dead roots. 



Several observers* have shown that transpiring plants 

 can absorb water from the soil even after the roots are 

 dead. We have confirmed the fact on pot-plants of 

 Helianthus tuberosum. A thermometer having been forced 

 into the earth, the flower-pot is immersed in water so 

 hot that the soil is kept at a temperature of 60° — 65° C. 

 for two hours. In spite of this violent treatment the 

 leaves remain turgescent for several days, whereas control- 

 plants shaken out of their pots and freed from soil rapidly 

 wither. 



1 Strasburger, Leitungsbahnen, 1891, p. 849, where references to 

 earlier experiments are given. 



