36 
OP THE ROOT. 
4th. Creeping Boot, (Pig. 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 washed away by the action of 
coasts are bound together 
by these creeping plants. 
This root will grow in 
sandy, light soils, which 
scarcely produce any oth- 
er vegetation. 
5th. Granulated 
Boot, (Fig. 17.) 
This consists of 
little bulbs or tu- 
bers, strung toge- 
ther by a thread- 
like radicle ; this 
form approaches 
to that of some 
varieties of the 
tuberous. 
6th. Tuberous Boot. This 
kind of root is hard, sohd, 
and fleshy ; it consists of 
one knob or tuber ; as in 
the potato, a; or of m.any 
such, connected by strings 
or filaments, as in the arti- 
choke, 6. These tubers are 
reservoirs of moisture,noQr- 
ishment, and vital energy 
The potato is in reaUty 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 fruit 
(often termed potato balls) 
is poisonous. The root ol 
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 m the 
asparagus, and several species of orchis. 
Creeping root— Its imponance in Holland— Granulated root— Tuberous root— Tu- 
bers, as the potato, not the real root— Different kinds of tuberous roots. 
