224 THE SOLID COMPONENTS OF PLANTS. 



CHAPTER II. 



GENERAL COMPONENTS OF THE VEGETABLE STRUC- 

 TURE. 



Vegetables, like animals, are composed of fluids 

 and solids. The fluid parts produce those which are 

 solid ; and the only pabulum of plants being liquid, it 

 is necessary that there should be an organic vascular 

 system for its distribution, and that it should, no less, 

 possses the vital power of assimilation, in order to 

 supply the growth which takes place, and to diversify 

 the products which characterize every species of per- 

 fected plant. 



The general solid components of the vegetable sys- 

 tem are ; the membranous, the cellular, the vascular, 

 and the glandular textures ; the ligneous fibre, and 

 the epidermis. 



The general fluids are the saj) and the proper juice. 



I. Of the Solid Components* 



The first which we shall examine is the membra- 

 nous texture, consisting of an exquisitely thin trans- 

 parent, colorless, film-like membrane or pellicle, found 

 in every individual of the vegetable kingdom. The 

 nicest microscopical examinations are unable to throw 

 any light on its intimate structure, so that no appear- 

 ances of organization have yet been detected in it. 

 It is that component of the vegetable structure, which 

 constitutes its basis ; or which in it lax state forms the 

 cellular and the glandular textures and the epidermis ; 

 a little condensed it constitutes the vascular texture, 

 and perhaps still more consolidated forms the ligneous 



* For the plates illustrative of this part of the subject, see the 

 end of the volume. 



