DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19455#0012
4
DRAWING-ROOM BOTANY.
dandelion (Lcontodon taraxacum), lucern (Medicago
sativa), and rest-harrow {Ononis arvensis), are good
examples of this. One of the principal uses of plough-
ing, besides admitting air, is to crumble down and
divide the masses of earth, and enable the rootlets
easily to penetrate into the soil. The extension of
the root enables some plants to perform an important
office in the economy of nature; namely, protecting
banks of rivers and coasts, where there is much loose
shifting sand, from being broken down by the winds
or the waves, said preventing the neighbouring fields
from being; overrun with sand. The roots of Carex
arenaria, Elymus arenarius, Ammophila arundinacea,
and many other grasses, run to a great extent under-
ground ; and being much entangled there, bind the
loose sand, and form a coherent bank, which is better
able to resist the action of the wind, or the encroach-
ments of the ocean. In many places in England the
growth of these plants is encouraged with this view,
and Acts of Parliaments have been passed for their
preservation.
The stem and branches also possess a power of
emitting rootlets: if a branch be placed in the earth,
or surrounded with earth on the tree, an incision
being made in the bark, it will emit rootlets from its
sides, and become, if properly treated, an entire and
independent tree. Hence, the propagation of plants
by slips and layers. Indian corn, and other plants of
the grass tribe, emit, from the knots on the stem, root-
lets which descend and take root in the soil; and
many other plants, besides the main root, have other
subsidiary ones thrown out by the stem from above.
DRAWING-ROOM BOTANY.
dandelion (Lcontodon taraxacum), lucern (Medicago
sativa), and rest-harrow {Ononis arvensis), are good
examples of this. One of the principal uses of plough-
ing, besides admitting air, is to crumble down and
divide the masses of earth, and enable the rootlets
easily to penetrate into the soil. The extension of
the root enables some plants to perform an important
office in the economy of nature; namely, protecting
banks of rivers and coasts, where there is much loose
shifting sand, from being broken down by the winds
or the waves, said preventing the neighbouring fields
from being; overrun with sand. The roots of Carex
arenaria, Elymus arenarius, Ammophila arundinacea,
and many other grasses, run to a great extent under-
ground ; and being much entangled there, bind the
loose sand, and form a coherent bank, which is better
able to resist the action of the wind, or the encroach-
ments of the ocean. In many places in England the
growth of these plants is encouraged with this view,
and Acts of Parliaments have been passed for their
preservation.
The stem and branches also possess a power of
emitting rootlets: if a branch be placed in the earth,
or surrounded with earth on the tree, an incision
being made in the bark, it will emit rootlets from its
sides, and become, if properly treated, an entire and
independent tree. Hence, the propagation of plants
by slips and layers. Indian corn, and other plants of
the grass tribe, emit, from the knots on the stem, root-
lets which descend and take root in the soil; and
many other plants, besides the main root, have other
subsidiary ones thrown out by the stem from above.