Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 
35 
effects, that could never have been accomplished 
without these preconcerted and harmonious ad¬ 
justments.” Fine words, certainly! but prce - 
terea nihil . 
It is indeed possible, nay probable, that 
Almighty wisdom has designed an additional 
supply of water to the roots of the noblest of his 
vegetable works. But granting this to be so, 
we are not to look for the hand of the Creator in 
an imaginary water-shed, from the outside of the 
head of the tree, on to an imaginary circle of 
spongioles, which, if they existed there, would 
probably absorb no water; but in the provision 
of an apparatus for condensing the watery 
vapour of the air, and for shedding it, through 
the whole head of the tree, on to the woody and 
really absorbing part of the root. 
That this water-shed takes place, Roget may 
convince himself oculis Jidelibus. For rain and 
condensation only fall from leaves or boughs 
after they have accumulated into much larger 
drops than those which fall as rain. And where 
trees overhang roads, these large drops, by the 
force of impact, eject the fine sand, and leave a 
surface of rough stones beneath the whole circle 
of the head of the tree, not merely round the 
outside of it. This fact may be seen . 
D 2 
