Why should this be so? It is clear enough, of course, that in order to fasten a big tree firmly in the ground, it must have numerous large and strong foundations. But wherefore this approximate equality in the areas occupied by roots and frondage9? The answer is, because every large tree forms a sort of umbrella, a domed10 roof or catchment basin for the rain that falls upon it; and it has always its own peculiar11 and admirably adapted arrangement for conducting all the water it intercepts12 to certain special spots or drinking-places in the ground, where it sets the roots, and especially the rootlets, or absorbent terminals, intended to soak that water up and convey it to the branches. If you stand under an oak-tree during a summer shower—a mode of passive scientific observation for which nature has afforded quite ample opportunities during the last few weeks—you will notice at once that the round mass of its foliage13 acts exactly like a huge umbrella, and conducts all the rain that falls upon its surface outward and downward towards the circumference14 of the circle. The drops that alight upon the central and tallest part of the tree are shed by the veined and channelled leaves till they fall off the tips on to the layer immediately below and outside them; this layer again conveys them to the next in order, and so on, till at last a little gathering15 stream drips from the ends of the lowest and longest outward-pointing boughs on to the soil beneath them. The ground in the centre remains16 perfectly17 dry, while a circle at the circumference is hollowed into a sort of irregular trench18, or rude round of tiny pits, by the continuous dripping of the collected gutters19.
Now, of course, the plant wants to utilize20 to the utmost all the rain it thus intercepts. It would be quite too silly of it to produce rootlets and absorbent terminals in the dry central space covered by the dense21 umbrella of foliage. But all around the circumference, and especially at the spots just under the runnels, where the water drops from the ends of the boughs, exactly as it drops from the rib-points of the silk-and-steel umbrella, the tree develops numerous minute rootlets, which suck up the rain as fast as it falls, and convey it by fixed22 pipes to the leaves and growing-points. Every tree and every large herb is thus a regular and well-organized catchment-basin, with its own mains and services; and it utilizes23 its water-supply by a cunningly adapted system of sucking rootlets, all placed at the exact spots where they will most surely absorb the amount of water that in each case runs down to them. So much is this true that in transplanting trees foresters and nurserymen know well you must lop the roots and the branches so as to cover equal superficial areas, or else the water will not fall on the parts best adapted to receive it; for, just as the lopped branches put forth24 new leaves and twigs25 at the point of section, so do the lopped roots put forth new rootlets and absorbent hairs at the place where they are now most urgently needed.
Not every kind of plant, however, manages its water-supply on the self-same system. There are dodges26 and devices. For herbs with leaves that spring from the rootstock alone, for example, without any visible above-ground stem, two main plans have been very widely adopted. One plan is that invented by plants like rhubarb, which have channelled leaves with grooved27 leaf-stalks, conducting all the water that falls upon their surface centrally towards the root. This is the centripetal28 type. Such plants resemble rather a funnel29 than an umbrella. They have always a straight tap-root, like a carrot; and this tap-root gives off numerous short rootlets on every side, which absorb all the water as it trickles30 down along the tapering31 surface of the inverted cone32. The other plan—the centrifugal type—is adopted by certain plants with heart-shaped or arrow-shaped leaves, which have round leaf-stalks. In these cases the individual leaves point outward and downward, and the water drips from them not inward towards the centre, but outward towards the circumference. Their principle is rather umbrella-like than funnel-like. To meet this catchment system they have no long and descending33 tap-root, but just a short knobby root, which gives off long fibres radially in every direction; and these fibres terminate in knots or groups of absorbent rootlets exactly beneath the points where each leaf drips—the knobs or tags of the umbrella, to carry out our convenient metaphor34. Examination of other and more complex plants reveals always the action of the same general law; each species has a peculiar catchment system of its own, more or less complicated, by means of which, directly or indirectly35, all the water that falls upon its foliage is finally conducted to certain specified36 spots or drinking-places; and at those specified spots the plant provides beforehand an elaborate system of absorbent organs, exactly sufficient to suck up and utilize the average amount of water it expects to obtain and store at each of them. If London were a plant, now——But hush37! I am silent. A gathering frown on the reader’s brow warns me in time to steer38 clear of such human and political analogies.
点击收听单词发音
1 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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2 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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3 solely | |
adv.仅仅,唯一地 | |
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4 unearth | |
v.发掘,掘出,从洞中赶出 | |
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5 domes | |
n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 );像圆屋顶一样的东西;圆顶体育场 | |
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6 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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7 inverted | |
adj.反向的,倒转的v.使倒置,使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8 circumscribed | |
adj.[医]局限的:受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 );划定…范围;限制;限定 | |
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9 frondage | |
n.叶,茂盛的叶;叶丛;叶簇 | |
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10 domed | |
adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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11 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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12 intercepts | |
(数学)截距( intercept的名词复数 ) | |
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13 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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14 circumference | |
n.圆周,周长,圆周线 | |
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15 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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16 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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17 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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18 trench | |
n./v.(挖)沟,(挖)战壕 | |
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19 gutters | |
(路边)排水沟( gutter的名词复数 ); 阴沟; (屋顶的)天沟; 贫贱的境地 | |
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20 utilize | |
vt.使用,利用 | |
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21 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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22 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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23 utilizes | |
v.利用,使用( utilize的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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25 twigs | |
细枝,嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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26 dodges | |
n.闪躲( dodge的名词复数 );躲避;伎俩;妙计v.闪躲( dodge的第三人称单数 );回避 | |
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27 grooved | |
v.沟( groove的过去式和过去分词 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏 | |
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28 centripetal | |
adj.向心的 | |
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29 funnel | |
n.漏斗;烟囱;v.汇集 | |
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30 trickles | |
n.细流( trickle的名词复数 );稀稀疏疏缓慢来往的东西v.滴( trickle的第三人称单数 );淌;使)慢慢走;缓慢移动 | |
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31 tapering | |
adj.尖端细的 | |
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32 cone | |
n.圆锥体,圆锥形东西,球果 | |
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33 descending | |
n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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34 metaphor | |
n.隐喻,暗喻 | |
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35 indirectly | |
adv.间接地,不直接了当地 | |
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36 specified | |
adj.特定的 | |
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37 hush | |
int.嘘,别出声;n.沉默,静寂;v.使安静 | |
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38 steer | |
vt.驾驶,为…操舵;引导;vi.驾驶 | |
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