Figure 28.14 shows a slice through a growing onion root. Primary growth enables roots to push through the soil. (A very similar process results in the upward growth of shoots.) At the tip of the root is the root cap, a thimble-like cone of cells that protects the delicate actively dividing cells of the apical meristem. The root's apical meristem (marked with the orange oval in the art and circled in the micrograph) replaces cells of the root cap that are scraped away by the soil (down arrow) and produces cells for primary growth (upward arrow). Primary growth is achieved not only by cell division but also by the lengthening of cells just above the apical meristem (see Figure 28.14, center