36 
OF THE ROOT. 
4th. Creeping Root^ (Fig- 16.) This root, 
instead of forcing its way perpendicularly 
into the earth, extends horizontally, and 
sends out fibres, as maybe seen in the Straw 
berry. It is very tenacious of life, as any part 
of it, containing a joint, will grow. This root 
is sometimes useful, by the fibres spreading 
and interlacing themselves, and thus render- 
ing a soil more permanent. Holland would 
be liable to be w^ashed away by the action Oi 
water, were it not that its 
coasts are bound together 
by these creeping plants. 
This root will grow in 
sandy, Ught soils, which 
scarcely produce any oth- 
er vegetation. 
5th. Granulated 
Root, (Fig. 17.) 
This consists of 
^ little bulbs or tu- 
\ bers, strung toge- 
^ ther by a thread- 
1^ like radicle ; this 
f\| form approaches 
to that of some 
varieties of 
tuberous. 
the 
6th. Tuberous Root. This 
kind of root is hard, solid, 
and fleshy ; it consists oi 
one knob or tuber ; as in 
the potato, a ; or of many 
such, connected by string-^i 
or filaments, as in the arti- 
choke, b. These tubers are 
reservoirs of moisture,nour- 
ishment, and vital energy 
The potato is in reahty but 
an excrescence,proceeding 
from the real root ; and it is 
a singular fact that this nu- 
tritious substance is the pro- 
duct of a plant whose fiuit 
(often termed potato balls) 
is poisonous. The root of 
some of the orchis plants, 
(Fig. 18. c.) consists of two 
tubers, resembhng the two 
lobes into which a bean may 
be divided. Tuberous roots 
are knobbed, as in the potato, oval, as in the orchis, abrupt, as in the 
plantain, fasciculated, when several are bundled together, as in the 
asparagus, and several species of orchis. 
~C;reeping root-~It7 impufTanee in Holland— Granulated root—Tubsrous root— Tu- 
bers, at thu poiaio, noi ihe real root— DillLreui kinds of !-uberuU8 rools- 
