1001 Questions and Answers on Botany (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... 20. What are meant by adventitious roots? These, sometimes called secondary roots, as distinguished from primary roots which start from the lower end of the caulicle, are roots which spring from any point of the stein above or below ground. In some plants the tendency to strike root is so strong that they frequently start from points many feet above ground and when firmly fixed may be severed from the parent stem and thus form independent plants. Indian corn has secondary or adventitious roots. 11, What is the most remarkable instance of the kind? The Banyan tree of India, which is said to have at least three hundred large trunks equal in size to some of our largest oak trees, and over two thousand smaller stems, forming in itself a fair sized forest, capable of sheltering an army of men. 22. What are cirrhous roots? Secondary roots, which climbing shrubs send out from upper joints of the stem, by which the plant is enabled to elevate itself to great heights, and to spread over a large area of rock or wall surface, and to reach th, e tops of lofty trees, as the trumpet creeper, tecoma radicans. 23. Is this property of starting secondary roots peculiar to some plants, or a characteristic of all stems and branches? All, or at least most stems, if placed in contact with motet, warm soil, will strike roots from the joints. Creeping and subterranean stems multiply in this way, and are often exceedingly troublesome and difficult to get rid of. 24. What are aerial roots? Roots which have no connection with the ground, and whose only office seems to be to support the plant in its position (usually on some other plant) and derive their nourishment entirely from the moisture in the air. 25. Mention some examples of these. The Tillandsia or long..