REPORT 



ON 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



IHE study of Vegetable Physiology advances with rapid 

 steps, the small number of its labourers annually increases, 

 each year adds to the importance of its results 5 and we already 

 look forward to the time when a decided separation of vege- 

 table physiology from descriptive botany must take place, for 

 it appears that these two sciences cannot simultaneously be 

 pursued by one and the same botanist to such an extent as 

 the present time demands. The number of anatomico-phy- 

 siological publications of the past year is extremely great ; and 

 it is morphology especially which has engaged during that 

 period the largest share of attention ; at present a contest 

 awaits it similar to that which previously vegetable anatomy 

 had to undergo, where not a single observation was admitted 

 without opposition. So also morphology must not be the 

 work of speculation, but should be founded wholly and solely 

 on the observation of nature ; studied in this way, it will be- 

 come a doctrine easy to comprehend, which will enlarge to a 

 great extent our knowledge of the nature of plants. 



From the active interest which has been taken in vegetable 

 physiology, and from the immense increase of materials, this 

 report becomes from year to year a more arduous undertaking; 

 as, however, it is of some utility for the diffusion of the sci- 

 ence, the reader will kindly overlook those faults with which 

 such a thankless task must always be accompanied. The in- 



