Flowers and their friends

by Margaret Warner Morley

I wonder if these green leaves will not look more beautiful than ever when we think of the work they are doing.

ROOT CELLS.

Roots do their work underground as a rule.

You might prefer not to be a root, if you had your choice; you might prefer to be a leaf or a flower.

I have never heard that the roots complained of their work, however. For one thing, it is easier. All they have to do is to hold the plant fast, suck up juices from the earth, and in some cases store away food material,—that is, if they are regular, well-behaved, everyday, underground roots.

Sometimes, however, roots come out of the ground and do all sorts of things,—cling to walls and hang in the air and perform in other unroot-like ways; but these are not what we are talking about. We are talking of roots, such as those of the morning-glory and nasturtium and geranium, which stay underground and behave themselves.

Since it is dark where they live, they have no chlorophyll grains, and do not have to make starch. They merely use up the starch that comes to them from above.

Since they are not blown about by the wind, they do not need complicated, stiff, supporting tissues like tree trunks. On the whole, they are rather a simple people. They are made of cells, of course. But there are not so many kinds of cells in them as in the stems and leaves.

They have skin cells, but no pores. Out of their skin cells grow their most interesting and important parts. These are called root hairs. They are made of cells lying next each other, like other hairs, but they do all the sucking up of food materials for the whole root. These root hairs draw the water and other food out of the soil for the use of the plant, and the rest of the root only stores it up and conducts it to the stem and leaves above and anchors the plant to the ground.