SECT. V. DEFINITION OF THE PLANT. 467 



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they belong. Hence it is that substances which 

 have at one time been classed among plants, have at 

 another time been classed among animals; and 

 there are substances to be met with whose place 

 has not yet been satisfactorily determined. Of 

 these I may exemplify the genus Corollina, which 

 Linnaeus placed among animals, but which Gaertner 

 places among plants ; and between authorities so 

 great who shall attempt to decide ? To the unex- 

 perienced naturalist perhaps the undertaking may 

 appear easy ; but the great diversity of rules which 

 have been devised for the purpose of fixing the 

 limits of the two kingdoms shows but too plainly the 

 difficulty of the task. 



The definitions of the earlier botanists were very Defini- 

 inaccurate. One of the ancients defined a plant to Se^bo- 

 be an animal fixed by means of a root. But this tamsts - 

 definition is good for nothing, for it requires the as- 

 sistance of at least two others to make it intelligible 

 one for the term animal, and another for the term 

 root ; and if when you come to the term animal you 

 proceed upon the same principle, you must then say 

 that it is a wandering plant that has no root to fix it : 

 so that thus you define your terms in a circle, and 

 explain nothing. 



Jungius,, a botanist who flourished about the Of Jim- 

 beginning of the 17th century, defined a plant to be glus ' 

 a body possessing vitality, but without sensation, 

 and fixed to a certain spot from which it derives the 

 nourishment necessary to the developement of its 



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