BRIEF ACCOUNT 



VARIOUS ORGANS OF PLANTS. 



IN commencing the study of practical Botany, it is necessary in 

 the first place to acquire some knowledge of the various parts or 

 organs of which plants are composed. A Plant or Vegetable 

 may be defined an organized living body, destitute of sens'i- 

 bility and voluntary motion. Being always fixed in a particular 

 spot, and thus incapacitated from searching for food, as animals 

 are wont to do, plants are nourished by the substances which sur- 

 round them, and imbibe or absorb, by their external surface, the 

 atmospheric air, water, and matters dissolved in them. Having 

 thus little choice, their organs of nutrition present little diversity ; 

 and being exempted from the necessity of observing and distin- 

 guishing objects, their faculties are very limited, compared with 

 those of animals. 



The parts of which a plant is composed, are named its Organs. 

 These organs are formed of Elementary Parts, differing from 

 each other, but so minute as to be distinctly visible only with the 

 aid of the microscope. These minute parts are named Elementary 

 Organs, Organic Tissue, or Vegetable Tissue, and consist of 

 cellules and tubes, of various forms, of which the basis is mem- 

 brane and^re. The parts, such as the Root, the Leaves, and the 

 Flo.wers, formed of these elementary cellules and tubes, are what 

 we commonly call Organs, or Compound Organs. These may 

 lie divided into two kinds: Organs of Nutrition, and Organs of 

 Reproduction. Of the former kind are the Root, Stem, Leaves, 

 and Appendages j of the latter, the Flowers and Fruit. 



