. Plant life and plant uses; an elementary textbook, a foundation for the study of agriculture, domestic science or college botany. Botany. ROOTS 47 ing of food. The older and tougher parts of the roots cannot, do this work for the reason that, as they grew older, their surface became changed in such a way that it no longer admits water. The amount of water which en- ters the roots of a plant is surpris- ing. On a warm dry day more than a quart enters the roots of a sunflower of medium size. Think, then, of the thousands of gallons which enter the roots of a forest. All this water moves throug
. Plant life and plant uses; an elementary textbook, a foundation for the study of agriculture, domestic science or college botany. Botany. ROOTS 47 ing of food. The older and tougher parts of the roots cannot, do this work for the reason that, as they grew older, their surface became changed in such a way that it no longer admits water. The amount of water which en- ters the roots of a plant is surpris- ing. On a warm dry day more than a quart enters the roots of a sunflower of medium size. Think, then, of the thousands of gallons which enter the roots of a forest. All this water moves through the roots to the upper parts of the plant; the roots are the paths to the stem. So, to anchor the plant, to take in water, and to furnish the path to the stem are three functions of roots. Another comes to mind when we Fig. 3- — a single root-hair of think Of all the edible roots which wheat, showing its close con- tact with grains of soil. find their way to our table. Of what advantage is a fleshy root to a radish ? The advan- tage to us is plain enough, but what is the advantage to the radish ? If left to itself the radish will use the food stored in its fleshy root to erect a stalk which will bear flowers and fruit. Similarly many other kinds of roots are used for the storage of food for later use. Thus a fourth function of roots is storage. .The roots are of use to the plant in still other ways. Like some other parts of the plant, they seem ready as need arises to do other than their regular work. Roots. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Coulter, John G. (John Gaylord), b. 1876. New York, American Book Co
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1913
