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XLIV. On the External Structure of Imperfect Plants. By 

 the Rev. Patrick Keith, F.L.S.* 



IF a plant of the imperfect class is taken and inspected 

 A minutely, at any season, it will be found to be defective, or 

 apparently defective in one or other of the more conspicuous 

 parts or organs of vegetables in general, such as the root, 

 stem, leaf, blossom, seed. Yet in the class of imperfect plants, 

 as in that of the perfect plants already surveyed, the eye 

 readily recognises traces of a similitude or dissimilitude of 

 external habit and deportment characterizing the numerous 

 individuals of which it consists, and suggesting the idea of 

 distinct tribes or families. Upon this principle botanists have 

 instituted different divisions, more or less extensive, according 

 to their different views of the subject; and some of their late 

 alterations we regard as improvements. The student who 

 wishes to make himself acquainted with the divisions and sub- 

 divisions that have been recently introduced into the class 

 Cryptogamia, will find a very good view of them in the first 

 numbers of Burnett's Outlines of Botany; though we cannot 

 agree with the learned professor in thinking that the study of 

 the simplest structures is that which the tyro in botany ought 

 to begin withf. This is the converting of a pleasing and 

 agreeable study into a difficult and disagreeable task. It is 

 the seizing of the bull by the horns at the first onset. The 

 study of the ascending scale is both delightful and instructive, 

 when the mind is duly prepared for it. But the mind of the 

 novice is not duly prepared for it, and cannot yet seize the 

 rude and uninviting types of the lower grades of vegetables 

 so as to enable him to study them either pleasurably or pro- 

 fitably, if we except not the singularly inviting type of the 

 Tartarian Lamb. For as in the comparative anatomy of 

 animals the student is always presumed to have made himself 

 well acquainted, already, with the anatomy of the human body, 

 so in the study of the comparative forms of vegetables, the 

 student who has already made himself well acquainted with 

 the structure of the higher grades, whose parts and organs 

 are well developed, will find himself in the best capacity to 

 enter upon the study of the structure of the lower grades, 

 whose parts and organs are minute and microscopic. This 

 it may be said is mere matter of opinion, and as such we are 

 content to have it regarded. It detracts nothing from the 

 value of the view which the professor exhibits. It relates 

 merely to the description of students for whom it is best 



* Communicated by the Author. t Preface to Outlines, xiii. 



