28 
THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 
were growing, I took half a dozen radishes, 
rubbed off all the side-roots, and laid them side¬ 
ways in the earth, in a flower-pot, with their 
heads out of the earth, and their immature white 
end-roots in the air, over the side of the flower¬ 
pot. All grew. 
No. 2. Of another half-dozen, I cut the red 
bulbs across the middle, rubbed the side-rootlets 
off the upper halves, and planted them in a 
flower-pot. All grew. 
No. 3. I tied half a dozen others to sticks, so 
that their heads and red bulbs were in the air, 
and their immature white roots buried about 
two inches in the earth. All died. 
It is true that each experiment, for the first 
week, flagged with every warm gleam, — 
“ Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro 
Languescit moriens; ” 
and this flagging took place in celerity and in¬ 
tensity inversely as I have numbered the expe¬ 
riments. But they revived with every shower, 
and this in celerity and perfection directly as 
their numbers. Some plants even of No. 3. re¬ 
covered their drooping partially after showers 
for the first few days. But this, I think, only 
goes to prove the position with which I started 
in the first edition of this treatise, that vegetables 
