CHAPTER III. 



OF THE PROCESS OF NUTRITION. 



IN the foregoing chapter I have enumerated the 

 substances constituting the principal food of plants, 

 as deducible from the observations and experiments 

 of the best phytological chemists. But this enu- 

 meration serves only as a step to conduct us to 

 further inquiries. For it is necessary to know not 

 only in what the food of plants consists, but also by 

 what means that food, whether lodged in the soil or 

 wafted through the atmosphere, is taken up by the 

 plant, conveyed to its different parts, and elaborated 

 so as to prepare it for final assimilation. The inves- 

 tigation of these topics shall form the subject of the 

 several following sections. 



SECTION I. 

 Intro-susception. 



As plants have no organ analagous to the mouth Effected 

 of animals enabling them to take up the nourish- p j res e f 

 ment necessary to their support, by what means do 

 they effect the intro-susception of their food ? In 

 our anatomical analysis of the vegetable structure, 

 it was found that the whole of the parts of the plant, 

 the root, stem, branches, leaves, flower, and fruit, 



mis. 



