16 VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



but the most wholesome food. Refined modes of cooking as well as 

 the truths of science, have happily changed the tastes of civilized 

 people and induced the cultivation and consumption of a greater 

 variety and number of vegetables ; while they have, at the same time, 

 diverted the taste and attention from the undue consumption of flesh. 

 That this has added to the health and longevity of mankind there can 

 be no doubt, though neither is equal to what it was in earlier 

 periods of society, as a consequence of the then greater comparative 

 consumption of vegetable food. The best interests of man, therefore, 

 demand more attention to the cultivation and use of garden plants. It 

 cannot be long, we trust, before this will be the most popular, as it is 

 the most useful, department of knowledge. Appearances indicate that 

 it is even now with us, as it is in parts of Europe, unfashionable to be 

 ignorant of the nature and properties of vegetables and fruits ; certainly 

 no subject is receiving so much attention among us. While the agri- 

 culturist is thus rapidly adding to his practical knowledge, in every 

 part of the country, the inhabitants of our cities, merchants and me- 

 chanics, are wisely directing their attention to the subject as a branch 

 of the most valuable and pleasing information. And it is worthy of 

 remark, in this connection, that many of them are becoming at the 

 same time the most profitable agriculturists, from the facilities af- 

 forded by the perusal of books. 



OUTLINES OF VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



PLANTS are organized living bodies which, like those of animals, 

 are composed of solids and fluids. They are without powers of loco- 

 motion, and, it is thought, of voluntary motion. They are fixed to 

 the earth by roots, from which they rise upward by a stem which 

 throws out branches that in their turn give out others, all bearing 

 leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. The word plant literally means 

 " fixed or rooted ;" but in Botany it signifies all productions of the vege- 

 table kingdom. These are of three kinds herbs, shrubs and trees; they 

 are annual, perishing within the year ; biennial, flowering the second 

 year and then perishing, or perennial, surviving many years. They 

 are deciduous when their leaves fade in autumn, and evergreen when 

 these are constantly renewed, as with all resinous trees. They are indi- 

 genous, or native, and exotic or foreign. The solid parts of plants 

 consist mostly of cellular substance, woody-fibre, pith, bark, etc., and 

 of fluids and juices, of various degrees of consistence, as volatile and 

 fixed oils, gums, resins, air, water, etc. These are circulated in vari- 

 ous ways and in numerous vessels and organs, each cbntaining par- 

 ticular substances and performing peculiar functions. 



