CHAPTER V.
ROOTS AND ROOT-HAIRS.
Older views as to root-hairs—Root-hairs and their development—Surface—Variations—Conditions for maximum formation—Minute structure—Adhesion to particles of soil—Functions.
On the roots of most plants are to be found delicate, silky-looking, tubular prolongations of some of the superficial cells, known as root-hairs. Malpighi (1687) seems to have been the first to observe them, and he took them for capillary tubes. Grew (1682) seems to have been responsible for the view that the roots act like sponges in taking up water.
Simon (1768) was probably the originator of the idea that these root-hairs were excretory tubules, a view that became very popular at the beginning of this century.
Meyer (1838) was perhaps the first to give a comparative account of them, and he supposed them to be delicate prolongations of the root-surface to facilitate the absorption of water.
The real importance of these organs, however, has only become apparent since Sachs, in 1859, recognised their relations to the particles of soil between which they extend and to which they cling.
In 1883 Schwarz made a very thorough study of their biological character, and in 1887 Molisch gave us new facts as to their physiology. Our knowledge of them has been rendered very much more intimate by the researches of Pfeffer and De Vries on osmotic and plasmolytic phenomena, and they serve as an excellent study of some of the best results of modern physiology.