many Important Truths in Vhytology. 97 



(often while learning) were too apt to disorder the clearness and 

 conciseness of the picture. So frequently has the whole now 

 been rpnewed; so continually have 1 gone over the same yearly 

 arrangement, that I can with more perfect perspicuity, and I 

 hope ctriainly, show the manner in which plants are formed; 

 the mechanism they possess ; the impossibihty of their being at 

 all setintive; show the power which food has oa plants, the 

 variety cf alterations it will produce in their apjjearance, and 

 how truly each change is adapted to the situation, soil, and 

 aspect for which it was made. 



But befoie I commence this accoimt, I owe to myself and to 

 the public, to show the manner in which my whole studies have 

 been regulated — that they n;ay be proper judges of the credit; 

 due to me, whether 1 deserve the confidence I have ventured to 

 claim, since my offering is, I understand, thought to be a system ; 

 instead of that which it really is, an exact and unaltered daily copy 

 of what Nature truly presents each year in the interior of a plant, 

 and which any person possessing a common microscope may 

 see, provided they will follow the picture as T have done, by 

 a daily review of the increase of the interior of each vegetable, 

 from the first of its commencement to its decay. — In explaining 

 the manner in which I have followed the study for the last six- 

 teen years, I may without exaggeration say, that 1 believe no 

 one has ever dissected or watched plants with the unwearied 

 diligence and patience that I have ; taking up a fresh plant of the 

 same kind every three days for nearly four years following, watch- 

 ing the interior picture, and pursuing each ingredient from its 

 first formation to its perfection, and hence to its destruction. 

 Convinced that a plant was only to be well known by this pro- 

 gressive pictme, I (besides all other dissections) submitted lo this; 

 and have gained more knowledge, and profited more, by this 

 method, than by any other previously tried. 1 have been re- 

 peatedly told that my dissections are admirable, hut that my 

 system is not admissibJe. 1 have no system. I think I may ven- 

 ture to say, that any one who should see the natural .specimens 

 I could show, would be convinced in a moment, because they 

 explain themselves. Mow is it'possible tliat the specimens can be 

 true, and yet the facts they elucidate, and bring to light, false? 

 I have witli the greatest care avoided forming any system, but 

 that whicli tiie dissections themselves plainly establish. To 

 prove this, I shall bring as an example " the seeds formed in 

 the roots," and mention the different specimens, and give the 

 drawings as they naturally appear in the tree, and as I took 

 them, and ask my reader whether any other cxplan.ition can be 

 given of such a scries of plain facts ? In September 1 810, laying 

 open the whole root of a beech, and lime, I discovered a (juantity 



Vol. 48. No. 220. Atigust 1816. G of 



