THE ROOT. 11 
fruit is so sought after for its sweet aroma, twines its slender stem 
round the neighbouring trees, forming an elegant, flexible, and 
Cay, > 
Veni Se 
Fig. 12.—Adventitious roots of the Primrose, 
aerial garland, at once a grateful and pleasing ornament in these — 
vast solitudes. The underground roots of the vanilla would not 
be sufficient for the nutriment of the plant, and the rising of the 
nourishing sap would take place too slowly. But nature has pro- 
vided for this inconvenience by the adventitious roots which the 
plant throws out at intervals along its stem. Living in the warm 
and humid atmosphere of tropical forests, the stronger shoots soon 
reach the ground, and root themselves in the soil. Others float 
freely in the atmosphere, inhaling the humidity and conveying it 
to the parent stem. All these processes may be observed in full 
operation in many well-ordered conservatories. 
A grand tree, the Pagoda Fig-tree (Ficus religiosa), adorns the 
landscape of India, and presents the most remarkable develop- 
ment of adventitious roots. When the parent stem has attained 
the height of some fifty or sixty fect, it throws out its lateral 
branches in every direction, and each branch in its turn throws _ 
