?,ECT. II.] DEFINITION OP A PLANT. 39 



LECTURE II. 



DEFINITION OF A PI, ANT GENERAL VIRW OF TMB 

 VEGETABLE FUNCTIONS. 



THE division of all natural objects into three 

 great classes is so simple and apparently so con- 

 sistent with nature, that it must have originated 

 at a very early period of society ; and the more 

 attentive observations of Philosophers, for a series 

 of ages, although they have found unexpected diffi- 

 culties in fixing the exact limit of these divisions, 

 yet, have discovered nothing to prevent altogether 

 their adoption. Philosophers, therefore, almost by 

 common consent, have classed all natural produc- 

 tions according as they appear to belong to the 

 animal, the vegetable, and the mineral or fossil 

 kingdoms. 



There is no difficulty in distinguishing a mi- 

 neral from a vegetable; for, although some Lichens 

 appear to the eye more like parts of the rock or 

 the stone to which they are attached than distinct 

 organized living bodies, yet, in nothing, except in 

 the want of sensation, do the members of the ve- 

 getable and the fossil kingdoms agree. 



To distinguish a vegetable from an animal does' 



