THE PABTS OF PLANTS. 5 



tliera. The beginning of our contemplation of Nature must always 

 and necessarily be devoted to differences ; as we ascend, we find that 

 the highest and most beautiful part of knowledge is that which traces 

 resemblances, and that resemblances resolve at last into unity, as the 

 scattered trees of the plain, surveyed from the mountain-top, become 

 a forest, and fill the eye as a single leaf. 



Let us now proceed to consider the parts of which plants are com- 

 posed, and by the peculiarities of which they are distinguished and 

 associated. It must be premised that plants are either "perfect" or 

 " imperfect," or, to speak more correctly, " simple " and " composite," 

 since nothing in nature is absolutely imperfect, but everything model- 

 led after a type that is perfect in its own way. The difiference in its 

 objects as regards structure, is merely that of greater or less com- 

 plexity. " Perfect" or " composite" plants are those in. which all or 

 nearly all the parts ever entering into the fabric of trees and flowers, 

 are present in high and beautiful development, a special organ being 

 appropriated to every iiiiferent function. The chief criterion is the 

 presence of a Blossom, formed in the way presently to be described ; 

 in practice, indeed, this is the only infallible test, for occasionally, 

 even where blossoms are present, the other portions of the structure 

 are of exceedingly low development, whereas none of the plants com- 

 prised in the great division called " Imperfect" ever produce blossoms 

 such as we refer to. "Perfect" or "composite" plants form the 

 great mass of the conspicuous vegetation of our earth. With a few 

 exceptions, the members of the other great class are inconspicuous, 

 people in general scarcely knowing of their existence. They are 

 replete with wonderful beauty nevertheless, delighting the true 

 lover of nature not more with their delicate and singular forms, 

 than with the simplicity of their organization, competent as it is to 

 the performance of every one of the offices which in Perfect plants 

 devolve on as many servitors. We shall take the "perfect" division 

 first, as naturally most attractive to taste and fancy, and opening the 

 pleasantest avenues to botanical knowledge. 



However large and complex a plant may be, and whether tree or 

 herb, its parts are all resolvable into these five : — 



THE ROOT, 



THE STEM, 



THE LEAVES, 



THE FLOWER, 



THE FRUIT OR SEED. 



