196 



pith, the seed, and their capsules. These are univer- 

 sal in plants, though their course be less plain in some 

 and their terminations Jess distinct in others. 



Every piece, therefore, cut from a plant transversely 

 contains all the parts of the plant, ready to grow in 

 length into a stalk upwards, and into a root down- 

 wards, and to separate at a due height from the root, 

 into the several parts of the flower. 



Thus we see the arrangement of the common par- 

 ticles of matter info a vegetable body, although it 

 be a work worthy of his hand who formed it, yet is 

 not so complex a thing as it appears. And this ar- 

 rangement being once made in one individual, the spe- 

 cies is created for ever. For growth is the conse- 

 quence of the arrangement, when it has heat and 

 moisture. 



Upon the whole, if we consider every part of a 

 plant, we shall find none without its use. The root 

 draws nourishment from the earth, the fibres convey 

 the sap, the larger vessels contain the specific juice of 

 the plant ; others carry air for such a respiration as 

 it needs. The outer and inner bark in trees, de 

 fend them from heat, and cold, and drought, and con- 

 vey that sap which is required for the annual in* 

 crease of the tree. And in truth every tree may in 

 some sense be said to bean annual plant. For both 

 leaf, flower, and fruit proceed from the coat that was 

 superinduced over the wood the last year. And this 

 never bears more, but together with the old wood 

 serves as a block to sustain the succeeding annual 

 coat. The leaves serve, before the bud unfolds, to 

 defend the flower and fruit, which is eve u then formed, 

 and afterward to preserve them and the branches from 

 the injuries of the summer sun. They serve also to 

 hinder the too hasty evaporation of the moisture 

 about the root. But their chief use is to concoct 

 the sap, for the nourishment of the whole plant; 

 both that they receive from the root, and that 

 they take in from the dew, the rain, and the moist 



