Proserpina, Volume 1 | Page 8

a large scale, as equally; but that is because they grow
from a central stem, while these mossy mounds are made out of
independent filaments, each growing to exactly his proper height in the
sphere--short ones outside, long in the middle. Stop, though; is that so?
I am not even sure of that; perhaps they are built over a little dome of
decayed moss below.[12] I must find out how every {24} filament
grows, separately--from root to cap, through the spirally set leaves. And
meanwhile I don't know very clearly so much as what a root is--or what
a leaf is. Before puzzling myself any farther in examination either of
moss or any other grander vegetable, I had better define these primal
forms of all vegetation, as well as I can--or rather begin the definition
of them, for future completion and correction. For, as my reader must
already sufficiently perceive, this book is literally to be one of
studies--not of statements. Some one said of me once, very shrewdly,
When he wants to work out a subject, he writes a book on it. That is a
very true saying in the main,--I work down or up to my mark, and let
the reader see process and progress, not caring to conceal them. But
this book will be nothing but process. I don't mean to assert anything
positively in it from the first page to the last. Whatever I say, is to be
understood only as a conditional statement--liable to, and inviting,
correction. And this the more because, as on the whole, I am at war
with the botanists, I can't ask them to help me, and then {25} call them
names afterwards. I hope only for a contemptuous heaping of coals on
my head by correction of my errors from them;--in some cases, my
scientific friends will, I know, give me forgiving aid;--but, for many
reasons, I am forced first to print the imperfect statement, as I can
independently shape it; for if once I asked for, or received help, every
thought would be frostbitten into timid expression, and every sentence
broken by apology. I should have to write a dozen of letters before I

could print a line, and the line, at last, would be only like a bit of any
other botanical book--trustworthy, it might be, perhaps; but certainly
unreadable. Whereas now, it will rather put things more forcibly in the
reader's mind to have them retouched and corrected as we go on; and
our natural and honest mistakes will often be suggestive of things we
could not have discovered but by wandering.
On these guarded conditions, then, I proceed to study, with my reader,
the first general laws of vegetable form.
* * * * *
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CHAPTER II.
THE ROOT.
1. Plants in their perfect form consist of four principal parts,--the Root,
Stem, Leaf, and Flower. It is true that the stem and flower are parts, or
remnants, or altered states, of the leaves; and that, speaking with close
accuracy, we might say, a perfect plant consists of leaf and root. But
the division into these four parts is best for practical purposes, and it
will be desirable to note a few general facts about each, before
endeavouring to describe any one kind of plant. Only, because the
character of the stem depends on the nature of the leaf and flower, we
must put it last in order of examination; and trace the development of
the plant first in root and leaf; then in the flower and its fruit; and lastly
in the stem.
2. First, then, the Root.
Every plant is divided, as I just said, in the main, into two parts, and
these have opposite natures. One part seeks the light; the other hates it.
One part feeds on the air; the other on the dust.
The part that loves the light is called the Leaf. It is an old Saxon word;
I cannot get at its origin. The part that hates the light is called the Root.

{27}
In Greek, [Greek: rhiza], Rhiza.[13]
In Latin, Radix, "the growing thing," which shortens, in French, into
Race, and then they put on the diminutive 'ine,' and get their two words,
Race, and Racine, of which we keep Race for animals, and use for
vegetables a word of our own Saxon (and Dutch) dialect,--'root';
(connected with Rood--an image of wood; whence at last the Holy
Rood, or Tree).
3. The Root has three great functions:
1st. To hold the plant in its place. 2nd. To nourish it with earth. 3rd. To
receive vital power for it from the earth.
With this last office is in some degree,--and especially in certain
plants,--connected, that of reproduction.
But in all plants the root has these three essential functions.
First, I said,