flat-top / hollow roots

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Could the plants with the discontinuous root / stem transition and the ones with the nice transition simply be a stylistic difference, having been drawn by separate artists?

My theory for those "platform roots" and "telescoping roots"  in the Herbals section is that those pages are expanded versions of sketches from the Pharma section (which may have been much more extensive originally).  

Those Pharma sketches were apparently not meant to show whole plants, but only the parts that were used as remedies and that one would buy from a market or apothecary shop: usually roots (that can last for months, or years if dried), often leaves, rarely flowers or fruits.  But long roots like burdock would usually come chopped into sections, and other roots would be shown cut away to show the internal structure.  Like, the most conspicuous feature of the lotus root is that it has 6-8 large "tunnels" running along the root.  And often the leaves were drawn with their stalks overlapping the drawing of the root.

The Author must have copied those drawings from a book, rather than from actual specimens.  In doing so he often made mistakes or omitted important details, like the internal structure in cutaway roots.  But he kept the cutaway surfaces. Later, when turning those sketches into full plants in the Herbal section, the Scribe blindly copied those cut surfaces when doing the roots.  And ditto for the roots that were drawn chopped into sections.  And those leaves with stalks overlapping the root became plants with leaves growing directly from the cutaway root...

All the best, --stolfi