56 
Rev. T. A. Jefferies. 
mature region of the root system, and are abundant on the thick 
cord roots right up to the surface of the soil. Exceptions are 
sometimes found in the natural damp-air chambers, which occur 
frequently in tussocks growing up out of streams and runnels, and 
in which a thick fur of hairs is induced on all the roots traversing 
the chamber, whether thick or fine. The strengthening zone is 
generally represented in the fine roots by a slight thickening and 
lignification of the somewhat smaller cells of the third layer, 
especially on their outer and lateral walls : frequently there is no 
sign of a sclerenchymatous band. The cortical parenchyma comes 
next, from two to five layers deep according to the development of 
the member. The endodermis is of the same character as in the 
cord roots but the inner walls of the cells are not thickened to 
anything like the same extent: a well developed fine root showed 
fifteen cells in this ring. The central cylinder contains very small 
groups of bast, frequently five in number, and a relatively large 
amount of woody tissue : sometimes there is a single large vessel in 
the middle, and occasionally two close together, but frequently 
none at all. The stele of the fine roots is not so strongly developed, 
proportionately, as that of the cord roots. In longitudinal section 
one notices the abundant branching—two or three branches may 
appear at once in the field of a 4 mm. objective—which contrasts 
markedly with the scanty branching of the cord roots. 
Before leaving the root, reference may be made to the frequent 
presence therein of chlorophyll. A tussock growing in a peat hag 
overhanging a stream had many of its roots exposed through the 
washing away of the peat, and some of its cord roots were green 
through the presence of chlorophyll, the chloroplasts being massed 
in the outer region of the cortex and chiefly on the exposed side. 
The same feature is common in the long cord roots near the sides 
of tussocks which have grown high up out of the soil, and which 
thereby expose their roots to light. It thus appears that the roots 
of Molinia, when accidentally exposed, can take on the work of 
carbon-assimilation, an illustration of the powers of adaptation 
which this species manifests in many directions. 
II. Rhizome. 
The rhizome of Molinia is reduced to a minimum: the shoots 
are packed together, and the rhizome is merely the necessary link 
for communication between them, and also between these shoots 
and the roots. The shoots when mature swell considerably just 
