Not at all. Unless you have been really rough, and used quite a good deal of strength, the little plant has kept its hold.
What holds it down, do you suppose?
Ah! Now you know what I am trying to get at. Its root is what holds it in place; and this holding of the plant in place is one of its uses.
Its thread-like branches are so many fingers that are laying hold of the earth. Each little thread makes it just so much the more difficult to uproot the plant.
I think you know already that another use of the root is to obtain nourishment for the plant.
These thread-like roots, you notice, creep out on every side in their search for food and drink. The water they are able to suck in easily by means of tiny mouths, which we cannot see. But the plant needs a certain amount of earth food, which in its solid state could not slip down these root throats any more easily than a young baby could swallow a lump of sugar.
Now, how is the plant to get this food, which it needs if it is to grow big and hearty?
Suppose the doctor should tell your mother that a lump of sugar was necessary to the health of your tiny baby brother, what would she do about it?
Would she put the great lump into the baby’s mouth?
You laugh at the very idea. Such a performance might choke the baby to death, you know quite well.