Plants about us : are roots useful to us?
Media
Part of The Young Citizen: The Magazine for Young People
- Title
- Plants about us : are roots useful to us?
- Language
- English
- Source
- The Young Citizen. 3 (4) May 1937
- Year
- 1937
- Subject
- Plant roots
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- J1ay, 1937 THE YOUNG CITIZEN 12> PLANTS ABOUT US Are Roots Useful to Us' hair: this mixture, they say, promotes the luxuriant growth of the hair. A sister to the ginger root is the dilaw. It is very similar to thl~ former but when pounded gives a yellow color. h is used for medicinal purpmes.· Some mothers boil the roots of the sarsaparilla and the cacao with their drinking water shortly after giving birth. They say it restores their color and increases their blood. Can you name other root Last month we talked about leaves and how chac have medicinal value? we benefit from them. Today let us dwell on thr farthest ends of the plant and sec if they ;ire of direct value to us. It is strange to hrar .myone say that our favorite ginatan is made up of rQf"'ts But what arc camotes. ube and yahi but che enlarged roots of plants so modified as to store food Let us check off rapidly those roots we use for food: ra~ishcs. sincamas, tug£~, wmoten~t hahoy. tui1qo. Can you think of l~lher::;! Some roots also haw medicinal value. Tlw ginger is of manifold use to us. We boil it in water with sugar and produce rhc stimulating drink of taho. It is indispensable in the cooking of pinacsiw. But more often it is pounded with other herbs to serve as poultice for _certain ailments as prescribed by arbolafios. Maidens often mix it with coconut juice to wash their the moisture deposited by dew or rain on the surface of the leaves among which it lives. The color'i of the tree-frog harmonize as a rule so completely with those of its leafy surroundings that its presence very readily escapes detection. All it docs is to sit still and wait. and after a while its color is changed. Its eyes (Pfcmu: t11rii tu rmgc J./2) . Of course. we all know that roots go deep into the ground to absorb water for the plants ;ind other minerals in the soil like nitrogen. Indirectly they help prevent landslides in mountainous countries. The Crees on the mountain sides by means of their roots hold the soil compactly together and prevent it from pouring down en the valleys below. The root is almost as important tp the plant a~ the heart is to a man. A plant can live and grow again if deprived of its leaves and stem if ic but retains its roots: but cue the roots and the plant perishes. So in that story of the monkey and the turtle as you all know the wise turtk chose chc roots. Because th:.:y hold life and thi...· rromisc of plant growth.