42 DEFINITION OF A PLANT. [LECT. II, 



Keeping the same idea in view, Boerhaave, who 

 flourished at the beginning of the following cen- 

 tury, defines a plant thus: <c A plant is an organic 

 " body, fixed to some other body by some part of 

 " itself, by which it imbibes the matter of nourish- 

 " ment, of growth, and of life *." The same opi- 

 nion was also entertained by Ludwig, a cotempo- 

 rary of the great Linnaeus, who says, " Natural bo- 

 " dies, having always the same form, and endowed 

 " with locomotion, are called animals ; those 

 " which have always the same form but are desti- 

 " tute of locomotion, vegetables -f-." In all of 

 these definitions the want of a locomotive power 

 is chiefly insisted on as being the most peculiar 

 distinguishing characteristic betwixt a vegetable 

 and an animal: but, although we may allow that 

 plants are destitute of locomotion, yet there are 

 several genera of the molusca and testaceae, co-* 

 rals, corallines, and some of the zoophyta, which 

 incontestably belong to the animal kingdom, that 

 are immoveably fixed to a single spot ; either to the 

 bottom of the sea, or to rocks, or to shells. The 



* " Planta est corpus organicum, alteri cuidam corpori 

 " cohaercns per aliquani par tern sui, per quam nutrimenti et 

 " increment! et vitae materiam capit et trahit. 1 *' Historia 

 Plant. 3. 



f 4< Corpora naturalia eadem semper forma et loco-motivi- 

 " tate pracdita appellantur animalia ; eadem semper forma, scd, 

 .** loco-motivitate destituta, vcgetabilia.''-/-^^^, Vcgd. 3 t 





