Evaporation is thus constantly taking place from the leaves, and if there
is no moisture to supply the place of what is lost, the cells collapse and
the leaf, as we say, wilts. When water is again supplied the cells swell
and the leaf becomes fresh.

(3) Place two seedlings in water, one with its top, the other with its
roots in the jar. The latter will remain fresh while the first wilts and
dies.

Absorption takes place through the roots. The water absorbed is drawn up
through the woody tissues of the stem (4), and the veins of the leaves
(5), whence it escapes into the air (6).

(4) Plunge a cut branch immediately into a colored solution, such as
aniline red, and after a time make sections in the stem above the liquid
to see what tissues have been stained.[1]

[Footnote 1: The Essentials of Botany, by Charles E. Bessey. New York,
Henry Holt & Co., 1884. Page 74. See also Physiological Botany, pp.
259-260.]

(5) "That water finds its way by preference through the fibro-vascular
bundles even in the more delicate parts, is shown by placing the cut
peduncle of a white tulip, or other large white flower, in a harmless dye,
and then again cutting off its end in order to bring a fresh surface in
contact with the solution,[1] when after a short time the dye will mount
through the flower-stalk and tinge the parts of the perianth according to
the course of the bundles."[2]

[Footnote 1: If the stems of flowers are cut under water they will last a