PHILOSOPHY OF DR. ERASMUS DARWIN. 2O? 



While the power of absorption in the roots and barks 

 of vegetables is excited into action by the fluids applied 

 to their mouths like the lacteals and lymphatics of 

 animals. 



" 2. The individuals of the vegetable world may be 

 considered as inferior or less perfect animals ; a tree is 

 a congeries of many living buds, and in this respect 

 resembles the branches of the coralline, which are a 

 congeries of a multitude of animals. Each of these 

 buds of a tree has its proper leaves or petals for lungs, 

 produces its viviparous or its oviparous offspring in buds 

 or seeds ; has its own roots, which, extending down the 

 stem of the tree, are interwoven with the roots of the 

 other buds, and form the bark, which is the only living 

 part of the stem, is annually renewed and is superin- 

 duced upon the former bark, which then dies, and, with 

 its stagnated juices gradually hardening into wood, 

 forms the concentric circles which we see in blocks of 

 timber. 



"The following circumstances evince the individu- 

 ality of the buds of trees. First, there are many trees 

 whose whole internal wood is perished, and yet the 

 branches are vegete and healthy. Secondly, the fibres 

 of the bark of trees are chiefly longitudinal, resembling 

 roots, as is beautifully seen in those prepared barks 

 that were lately brought from Otaheita. Thirdly, in 

 horizontal wounds of the bark of trees, the fibres of the 

 upper lip are always elongated downwards like roots, 

 but those of the lower lip do not approach to meet 

 them. Fourthly, if you wrap wet moss round any joint 

 of a vine, or cover it with moist earth, roots will shoot 



