INTRODUCTION. 27 



siological research ; and secondly, such a view of 

 tbe process of vegetation as shall render the rati- 

 onale of the preceding phenomena preparatory to 

 that of the following, and shall not necessarily sup- 

 pose any previous knowledge of the subject. 



This will involve, in the first place, an inquiry -- 

 into the structure of vegetables as being organized 

 substances ; which naturally divides itself into two 

 distinct departments the external structure of the External 

 plant, and the internal structure or anatomy of the na | 

 plant ; the former including such parts and peculia- 

 rities as are discoverable by means of outward in- 

 spection, and the latter, such parts or organs as are 

 discoverable only by dissection. Secondly, it will 

 involve the chemical analysis of vegetables and With an 



vegetable productions, as being the best means o 



ascertaining the character of the nourishment on 

 which the plant naturally feeds. Thirdly, it will in- 

 volve an account of the functions of the several organs / 

 of vegetables and phenomena of vegetable life, as And ph 

 being the grand and leading object of all phytological 

 investigation 3 to which the foregoing inquiries are only llfe * 

 preparatory steps. And lastly, it will involve the 

 phenomena consequent even upon vegetable death, And 

 as comprehending the process by which the vege- 

 table substance is ultimately reduced to the primary 

 and unorganized principles of which it was origi- 

 nally composed, and rendered capable of mingling 

 again with the soil or atmosphere, or of entering 

 into the composition of new vegetable bodies. 



