Hence we may conclude
that the rootlets first secrete a slightly viscid fluid, subsequently
absorb the watery parts, (for we have seen that the fluid will not
dry by itself,) and ultimately leave a cement. When the rootlets
were torn from the glass, atoms of yellowish matter were left on it,
which were partly dissolved by a drop of bisulphide of carbon; and
this extremely volatile fluid was rendered very much less volatile by
what it had dissolved.
As the bisulphide of carbon has a strong power of softening indurated
caoutchouc, I soaked in it during a short time several rootlets of a
plant which had grown up a plaistered wall; and I then found many
extremely thin threads of transparent, not viscid, excessively
elastic matter, precisely like caoutchouc, attached to two sets of
rootlets on the same branch. These threads proceeded from the bark
of the rootlet at one end, and at the other end were firmly attached
to particles of silex or mortar from the wall. There could be no
mistake in this observation, as I played with the threads for a long
time under the microscope, drawing them out with my dissecting-
needles and letting them spring back again.
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