30 
THE FOOT) OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 
No. 1. and No. 2. into the open ground. On 
taking off the pots, I found the roots in both 
cases matted round the balls of earth, and they 
had grown through the holes of the flower-pots. 
Can it be supposed that these long roots are use¬ 
ful to their plants only by their ends ? Can it 
be supposed that the grand systems of roots of 
forest-trees are useful as absorbents only at their 
ends ? If so, would these magnificent conduits 
of the upward sap, or could they, enlarge directly 
as their distance from their petty supply? I 
think the reverse of all this is the case: that 
the root absorbs laterally from the whole of its 
mature length. 
No. 4. On the 7th of June, 1850, I took half 
a dozen radishes grown in an open bed, which 
the gardeners were pulling up because too large 
and too old for use; I cut off* the lower halves 
of the bulbs, rubbed off* the side-rootlets, and 
transplanted the upper half-bulbs to an open bed 
under a south wall, taking the precaution to 
diminish their heads by cutting off* nearly all 
their large leaves. The stalk of one had grown 
up about three inches. For the three succeeding 
days the thermometer on the wall rose above 90°, 
on the fourth day above 100°. The plants were 
watered each day, but not sheltered from the 
