out till it wilts; then add water and note the rapidity with which it recovers. Vary the experiment in quantity of water applied. Does the plant call for water sooner when it stands in a sunny window than when in a cool shady place? Prove it. 39. Immerse a potted plant above the rim of the pot in a pail of water and let it remain there. What is the consequence? Why? 40. To test the effect of temperature on roots. Put one pot in a dish of ice water, and another in a dish of warm water, and keep them in a warm room. In a short time notice how stiff and vigorous is the one whose roots are warm, whereas the other may show signs of wilting. 41. The process of osmosis. Chip away the shell from the large end of an egg so as to expose the uninjured membrane beneath for an area about as large as a dime. With sealing-wax, chewing-gum, or paste stick a quill about three inches long to the smaller end of the egg. After the tube is in place, run a hat pin into it so as to pierce both shell and membrane; or use a short glass tube, first scraping the shell thin with a knife and then boring through it with the tube. Now set the egg upon the mouth of a pickle jar nearly full of water, so that the large end with the exposed membrane is beneath the water. After several hours, observe the tube on top of the egg to see whether the water has forced its way into the egg and increased its volume so that part of its contents are forced up into the tube. If no tube is at hand, see whether the contents are forced through the hole which has been made in the small end of the egg. Explain how the law of osmosis is verified by your result. If the eggshell contained only the membrane, would water rise into it? If there were no water in the bottle, would the egg-white pass down into the bottle? 42. The region of most rapid growth. The pupil should make marks with waterproof ink (as Higgins' ink or indelible marking ink) on any soft growing roots. Place seeds of bean, radish, or cabbage between layers of blotting paper or thick cloth. Keep them damp and warm. When stem and root have grown an inch and a half long each, with waterproof ink mark spaces exactly one quarter inch apart (Figs. 48, 49). Keep the plantlets moist for a day or two, and it will be found that on the stem some or all of the marks are more than one quarter inch apart; on the root the marks have not separated. The root has grown beyond the last mark.
Note to Teacher.—The microscopic structure of the root can be determined only by the use of the compound microscope; but a good general conception of the structure may be had by a careful attention to the text and pictures and to explanations by the teacher, if such microscopes are not to be had. See note at close of Chapter X.
