I'hUosoph'ical Character of Decandolle . 235 



lied upon as indicative of any fundamental distinction in the 

 cases in which it occurs. 



I have now instanced, rather for the sake of illustration, than 

 imder any ideaof doing justice to the subject, a few of the pecu- 

 liar merits of Mons. Decandolle's Organographie, which, more- 

 over, as a full, candid, and luminous exposition of all that was 

 known at the time with respect to the structure of vegetables, 

 stands, to say the least, on a par with any other w^ork of the 

 kind; nor are there any portions of it, which, even at the pre- 

 sent more advanced period of our knowledge, are liable to lead 

 us into mistakes, except, perhaps, what relates to the micro- 

 scopic anatomy of plants, on which neither the leisure, nor the 

 perfection of the instruments, which Mons. Decandolle could 

 command, was such as to justify him in speaking with au- 

 thority. 



Without caring for the order of dates, it may be convenient 

 for me to proceed next to notice the other treatise, in which 

 Decandolle aimed at completing that general survey of the 

 entire vegetable kingdom, which it had been the business of 

 his life to systematize and arrange. 



In the year 1832, his treatise on the physiology of plants, 

 in 3 vols. 8vo., was first offered to the public ; but its principal 

 contents had formed the subject of his lectures for several pre- 

 ceding years, and had even been, with the permission of their 

 author, given in an English dress, by Mrs Marcet, in her in- 

 teresting Conversations on Vegetable Physiology, published in 

 1829. 



Regarded as a clear and comprehensive digest of what 

 was known with respect to the functions of the organs de- 

 scribed in his preceding work, the treatise now alluded to 

 stood probably without a rival at the time of its appearance ; 

 but it did not afford the same room for originality in the mode 

 of treating the subjects under discussion, which had been 

 afforded him in the preceding volumes, by applying the law 

 of symmetry to the subject of vegetable organization, and by 

 following out the consequences of that prolific principle. 



Amongst the points on which the reader may look for much 

 sound information, I may allude to those relating to chemical 

 jihcnomcna of vegetation, to which subject the uaturalistsofGe- 



