292 Mr. Burnett on the Functions of Plants, 



inorganic matter, mere earths, salts, or airs, substances cer- 

 tainly incapable of serving as food for any animals, the latter 

 only feeding on what is or has been organized matter, either 

 of a vegetable or animal nature ; so that it should seem to be 

 the office of vegetable life alone, to transform dead matter into 

 organized living bodies." This is a most philosophic and im- 

 portant observation ; one which would further lead to the in- 

 vestigation of the problem, whether plants, in any case, pro- 

 duce those alkaline and earthy substances which are mediately 

 or immediately peculiar to them, and whose metallic bases are 

 chemical elements in our present state of knowledge ; but the 

 mere allusion to this extensive and disputed topic is almost 

 without the scope of the present trifle, already stretched un- 

 duly in its length. 



To conclude, hence perceive we that the definition of Aris- 

 totle, though incorrect, was, for the age in which it was ad- 

 ventured, one of extraordinary astuteness, when he said that 

 "plants are animals turned inside out;" for Linnaeus, who 

 repeated this observation many centuries after, in nearly simi- 

 lar words, declared that they are in the organs by which many 

 of their functions are performed, truly and strictly f inverted 

 animals." Efforts, we have seen, are continually made in 

 each successive stage to separate the vital functions, and con- 

 centrate their force in peculiar organs, for the better perfor- 

 mance of their several duties : just as in mechanics, a pin is 

 best made when the head is the work of one artist ; the shaft 

 of a second ; the junction of each to the other the employ- 

 ment of a separate artificer; and sharpening the point the 

 labour of an especial hand. 



In reference to the proposition with which we set out, if we 

 have found certain locomotive vegetables, as the Confervse 

 iEgagropila, Vagabunda, &c, that can figuratively be said to 

 have run away ; these vagrant plants have run away without 

 a stomach : and if Nepenthes and Sarracennia can, in anywise, 

 be said to have " found out the blessing of a stomach," they 

 have not been able " to run away with it." 



Yours, very truly, . 



Gilbert T. Burnett. 

 November 10th, 1829, 

 22, Great Marylebone-street. 



