~Movement~ is not nearly so great in plants as it is in animals, and most plants are firmly fastened in the ground. Yet there are some plants in which we can see very rapid movements of some of the parts, while many simple little plants living in water can swim actively about like animals. All plants show some form of movement, though it is generally slow. As a result, we find that all the signs of life we noted in animals, ~viz.~ ~breathing~, ~eating~, ~growing~, and ~moving~, are to be found in plants, and we must look on them as being just as much alive as animals. We can see that their mode of life and the work they do are distinctly different from those of the animals, but they are no less vital, and important for the world as a whole. [Illustration: PLATE II. A WHOLE PLANT, TO SHOW ALL THE PARTS A POPPY] PART II. THE PARTS OF A PLANT’S BODY AND THEIR USES CHAPTER XI. ROOTS If you have a garden of your own, or have even watched another person gardening, you must have found out that it is not always an easy thing to get rid of the weeds, and that when one tries to “pull them up by the roots,” they often resist it very strongly indeed. If you have never done this, try to pull up a large grass tuft or a hedge mustard, or any fairly big common plant, and you will find that often when it does not look very strong it may be extremely difficult to get it completely out of the soil, and even when it comes out you may find that you have not got it quite whole, for the finer branches of the root will generally break off. Now this shows us one of the uses of its roots to a plant; they keep it firmly in the soil, and prevent the wind from blowing it away, and people or animals from overturning it too easily. To see the form of a complete root it is wise to choose a fairly small plant, let us say a daisy, wallflower, candy-tuft, or young holly; then loosen the earth all round it and pull it very gently from the soil. Shake off the mud and then wash it clean and spread it out on a sheet of white paper so that you can examine it properly. Notice that there is a central chief root, with many side branches which have again finer and finer branchlets (~see~ fig. 36). At the tip of the very finest you should see a number of delicate hairs, the root hairs, but it is very possible that you will have torn these off with the soil. To see them best, look at some of your seedlings which have grown in moist air, where they are very well developed (~see~ fig. 8). In any of these plants you will notice that the main root seems to be a downward continuation of the main stem, and that the side roots come off all round it, just as was the case in your bean seedlings (~see~ figs. 36 and 7). Such a root is called a ~tap root~. [Illustration: Fig. 36. Root of a young Holly: ~l~, level of soil; ~s~, stem; ~c~, chief root with many side branches and finely divided rootlets.]