THE PALM-ROOT.
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OF THE ROOT OF THE PALMS.
The full-grown Palm-stem is never furnished with atap-root, but its inferior portion, rounded off like a bulb,is clothed with a quantity of fibrous, branching roots.These roots are always slender, not very long, beset inan irregular manner with slender lateral branches, cylin-drical, obtuse at the extremities, in the young conditionwhite, and subsequently brownish. Their young shootsare clothed with fine hairs; sometimes short spinouselevations occur on the root, which are to be regarded asabortive lateral branches. The germinating Palm has atap-root, but this attains no considerable size. Shortlyafter germination, side roots are developed from the baseof the stem ; the tap-root disappears, and after a timethe first side roots also die away, and are replaced bynew rootlets, which spring out in a circle above the earlierones. This process is repeated in a manner analogousto that in the bulbous plants. Although the roots arisevery closely crowded together, yet the subterraneous por-tion of the stem soon becomes completely covered withroots, and the new ones then arise, as in Pandams,above ground. In this way it often happens that thestem stands raised free above the surface of the earth,merely supported by the roots; for example, in Iriarteaexorhiza .
The formation and first development of the roots occurin the interior of the stem, between the fibrous layer andthe developed vascular bundles. In this place is formeda nucleus of cellular tissue (a true bud), which acquiresthe shape of a root, and breaks through the rind. Suchbuds of future roots may be found in considerable abun-