28 GEXERAL TEXTURE OF PLANTS. 



service to each other, and the last is only to be pursued, 

 with any certainty, by such as are versed in the other 

 two. The present publication is intended to explain 

 the fundamental principles of them all, with as much 

 practical illustration as may be necessary for those who 

 wish to become well acquainted with this delightful sci- 

 ence. Botany has one advantage over many other use- 

 ful and necessary studies, that even its first beginnings 

 are pleasing and profitable, though pursued to ever so 

 small an extent ; the objects with which it is conversant 

 are in themselves charming, and they become doubly so 

 to those who contemplate them with the additional sense, 

 as it were, which science gives ; the pursuit of these 

 objects is an exercise no less healthful to the body, than 

 the observation of their laws and characters is to the 

 mind. 



In studying the functions of the Vegetable frame, we 

 must constantly remember that it is not merely a collec- 

 tion of tubes or vessels holding different fluids, but that 

 it is endowed with life, and consequently able not only 

 to imbibe particular fluids, but to alter their nature ac- 

 cording to certain laws, that is, to foi'm peculiar secre- 

 tions. This is the exclusive property of a living being. 

 Animals secrete milk and fat from food which has no 

 resemblance to those substances ; so Vegetables secrete 

 gum, sugar, and various resinous substances from the 

 uniform juices of the earth, or perhaps from mere water 

 and air. The most difterent and discordant fluids, sepa- 

 rated only by the finest film or membrane, are, as we 

 have already observed, kept perfectly distinct, while life 

 remains ; but no sooner does the vital principle depart, 



