Plants, as well as bees and other animals, can remind us that we have to grow up, learn discipline from our elders and betters and face the ending of life’s day. In Book 17, Bartholomew describes the properties of the root as the part of the plant that draws in nourishment to send to the leaves: roots vary in form; they accord with the nature of the ground in which they are hidden; a root is stronger the deeper it lies; it passes its quality on to the leaves and fruit of the plant, and thence to the seed; it can be edible, medicinal or otherwise useful. Bartholomew overtly likens the root of a plant to a nurse who nourishes the growing child.^[53] The glossator points to another level of meaning available within this descriptive account: ‘Take note concerning faith and humility; nurture and kindness; the study of the divine Word through reading and listening; the strength of charity; the remission of sin, the choice between good and bad.’^[54] The glosses tell us, then, that for a thirteenth-century reader aware of the clerical connotations, the physical reality of a plant’s root could serve to exemplify the professional virtue of providing good pastoral care. The glosses also show us that the underlying significance of the small boy resisting his mother's attempts to wash and comb him, described in Book 6, is similar to that of the colt resisting the bridle, described in Book 18.^[55] Against Bartholomew’s lively and evocative sketch of the mother and child the glossator strikes a sombre and warning note: ‘[T]ake note concerning those who will not be told about eternal life; those who chatter; those who will not submit to discipline.’^[56] Against Bartholomew’s lyrical description of the colt allowed to run freely with its mother until the time for training comes, the glossator warns: ‘[T]ake note concerning subordinates and novices; the wish of subordinates to be prelates; concerning preachers; why the world should be spurned.’^[57] Both the small boy and the colt have properties that can point to an underlying lesson — that there are those who have not yet learned to submit to discipline, who are spiritually immature or recalcitrant, noisy or in a hurry, and who do not want to give up worldly things. Examples of wilfulness and discipline, teaching and learning, service and reward, authority and subordination, infancy, growth and maturity crop up again and again in the rest of the work, among the properties of creatures on earth and in the commentary alongside the text. The glosses help us to see how the text creates a web of connected spiritual meanings through the properties of diverse physical things: roots supply nourishment to the growing plant; mothers and nurses give nourishment and guidance to the growing child; the preacher supplies nourishment and guidance to the growing Christian soul. Humans, plants, animals, stones, birds and bees can all point to the same truth.