306 | | ASSEMBLY 7 
mates influence the position or extent of the roots of plants? It 
may be that the results reached in the heavy clay soil of the station 
garden do not apply at all in a mucky or sandy soil. It may be that 
the results obtained here in a dry season would be quite different 
from those obtained in a wet one. It may be that the results se- 
cured in two entirely similar soils would be quite different if the 
climate of the two were widely different. 
Does fertility or temperature have the greater influence in - deter- 
mining the position of the roots? If the former, then fertilizing 
the surface tends to entice the roots upward. Ii the latter, then 
fertilizing can be of benefit only so far as it reaches the feeding 
ground of the roots. It follows also that if the position of the root 
is determined by the temperature of the soil, that the roots of the 
same plant would lie deeper in a tropical than a temperate climate ; 
_and hence the same methods of culture would not apply equally well 
to both. Perhaps heredity exerts a stronger influence than either 
temperature or fertility. Of course the observations made the past 
season in the station garden concerning the distribution of roots, 
furnish us no’data by which we are enabled to fully answer these 
questions. It is only preliminary work in what seems to be a most 
important and fertile field. 
With the view of examining the root systems of our garden 
plants, we planted last spring, seeds of one or more varieties of most 
of the different vegetables, near the hydrants inthe garden. by re- 
moving a part of the earth on one side of a plant of which we de- 
sired to examine the roots, and attaching a hose to one of the hy- 
drants, we were able to wash out the roots easily and rapidly. In 
some cases, however, the tenacious character of the soil rendered it 
difficult or ‘impossible to trace the finest roots to their termination. 
We should state here that the soil on which these vegetables were 
grown is a clay loam to the depth of six to ten inches, below which 
is a tenacious sub-soil of gravelly clay. 
THE Pra. 
July 25 we examined the roots of a plant of British Queen pea, 
of which the pods were just past the marketable stage. The plant 
was about four and a half feet high. The tap root extended nearly 
perpendicularly downward to the depth of thirty-nine inches. Be- 
low this it was too delicate to trace. Branches separated from the 
tap root throughout its length. ‘These were most numerous between 
four and eight inches in depth, where they seemed to nearly fill the 
soil for a distance of about eight inches on either side. We traced 
a single branch root a distance of eighteen inches from the tap root. 
The majority of the branches appeared to extend little farther than 
afoot. They gradually became shorter as the depth increased, but 
were four to six inches long at a depth of thirty inches. Sometimes 
the branches curved upward after leaving the tap root. The latter 
tor a depth of six inches below the surface was clothed with clusters 
