VARIETIES OF SECRETIONS. 7* 



It is curious to observe, not only the vari- 

 ous secretions of different plants, or families 

 of plants, by which they differ from each 

 other in taste, smell, qualities and medical 

 virtues, but also their great number, and 

 striking difference, frequently in the same 

 plant. Of this the Peach-tree offers a familiar 

 example. The gum of this tree is mild and 

 mucilaginous. The bark, leaves and flowers 

 abound with a bitter secretion of a purgative 

 and rather dangerous quality, than which no- 

 thing can be more distinct from the gum. 

 The fruit is replete, not only with acid, mu- 

 cilage and sugar, but with its own peculiar 

 aromatic and highly volatile secretion,, elabo- 

 rated within itself, on which its fine flavour 

 depends. How faT are we still from under- 

 standing the whole anatomy of the vegetable 

 body, which can create and keep separate such 

 distinct and discordant substances ! 



Nothing is more astonishing than the se- 

 cretion of flinty earth by plants, which though 

 never suspected till within a few years, appears 

 to me well ascertained. A substance is found 

 in the hollow stem of the Bamboo, (Arundo 

 Ba?nbos of Linnaeus, Nastos of Theophrastus), 



