LioOK T. 



EXTERNAL STRUCTURE OF PLANTS. 



211 



1313. Gems or bulbs are organiser! substances issuing from the surface of the plant, and containing the 

 rudiments of new and additional parts which they protrude ; or the rudiments of new individuals, which 

 they constitute by detaching themselves ultimately from the parent plant, and fixing themselves in the 

 soil. 



1314. Glands are small and minute substances of various forms, found chiefly on the surface of the 

 leaf and petiole, but often also on the other parts of the plant, and supposed to be the organs of secretion. 



1315. The tendril is a thread-shaped and generally spiral process issuing from the stem, branch, or 

 petiole, and sometimes even from the expansion of the leaf itself, being an organ by which plants of 

 weak and climbing stems attach themselves to other plants or other substances for support ; for which 

 purpose it seems to be well fitted by nature, the tendril being much stronger than a branch of the same 

 size. 



1316. The stipuLe are small foliaceous appendages accompanying the real leaves, and assuming the 

 appearance of leaves in miniature. 



1317. Ramenta are thin, oblong, and strap-shaped appendages, of a brownish colour, issuing from the sur- 

 face of the plant, and somewhat resembling the stipula?, but not necessarily accompanying the leaves 



1318. The armature consists of such accessory and auxiliary parts as seem to have been intended by 

 nature to defend the plant against the attacks of animals. 



1319. The pubescence is a general term, including under it all sorts of vegetable down or hairiness, with 

 which the surface of the plant may be covered, finer or less formidable than the armature. 



1320. Anoma/ies.'Vhere , - q 

 are several other appen- 

 dages proper to conser- 

 vative organs, which are 

 so totally different from 

 all the foregoing, that 

 they cannot be classed 

 with any of them ; and 

 so very circumscribed in 

 their occurrence, that 

 they do not yet seem to 

 have been designated by 

 any peculiar appellation. 

 The fir- 1 anomaly, affect- 

 ing the conservative ap- 

 pendages, occurs in Dio- 

 nse\t niuscipula, Venus's 

 fly-trap. (fig. 178. a) A 

 second is that which oc. 

 curs in Sarracen/'« pur- 

 purea or purple side-sad- 

 dle-flower (b). A third, which is still more singular, occurs in iVepcnthes distiilatdna ^c). The last anomaly 

 is a small globular and membranaceous bag, attached as an appendage to the roots and leaves of some of 

 the aquatics. It is confined to a few genera, but it is to be seen in great abundance on the roots or 

 leaves of the several species of Utricularia inhabiting the ponds and ditches of this country ; and on the 

 leaves of Aldrovandu vesiculbsa, an inhabitant of the marshes of Italy. In Utricularia vulgaris this 

 appendage is pear-shaped, compressed, with an open bolder at the small end, furnished with several 

 slender fibres originating in the margin, and containing a transparent and watery fluid and a small bubble 

 of air, by means of which it seems to acquire a buoyancy that suspends it in the water. 



1321. The reproductive organs are such parts of the plant as are essential to its propaga- 

 tion, whose object is the reproduction of the species, terminating the old individual, and 

 beginning the new. It includes the flower, with its immediate accompaniments or 

 peculiarities, the flower-stalk, receptacle, and inflorescence, together with the ovary or 

 fruit. 



1322. The flower, like the leaf, is a temporary part of the plant, issuing generally from the extremity of 

 the branches, but sometimes also from the root, stem, and even leaf, being the apparatus destined by 

 nature for the production of the fruit, and being also distinguishable, for the most part, by the brilliancy 

 of its colouring or the sweetness of its smell. 



1323. The flower-stalk is a partial trunk or stem, supporting one or more flowers, if the flowers are not 

 sessile, and issuing from the root, stem, branch, or petiole, and sometimes even from the leaf. 



1324. The receptacle is the seat of the flower, and point of union between the different parts of the flower, 

 or between the flower and the plant, whether immediate and sessile, or mediate and supported upon a 

 flower-stalk. 



1325. The inflorescence, mode of flowering, is the peculiar mode of aggregation in which flowers are 

 arranged or distributed upon the plant. 



1326. The fruit is th£ ripened ovary, or seed-vessel which succeeds the flower. In popular language the 

 term is confined chiefly to such fruits as are esculent, as the apple, the peach, and the cherry ; but with 

 the botanist the matured ovary of every flower, with the parts contained, constitutes the fruit. 



1327. Appendages. The reproductive organs, like the conservative organs, are often 

 found to be furnished with various additional and supernumerary parts, not at all essential 

 to their constitution, because not always present, and hence denominated appendages. 

 Many of them are precisely of the same character with that of the conservative appen- 

 dages, except that they are of a finer and more delicate texture ; such are the glands, 

 down, pubescence, hairs, thorns, or prickles, with one or other of which the parts of the 

 fructification are occasionally furnished : but others are altogether peculiar to the repro- 

 ductive organs, and are to be regarded as constituting, in the strict acceptation of the 

 term, true reproductive appendages. Some of them are found to be proper to the flower, 

 as the involucre, spathe, bractea, &e. ; and others to the fruit, as the persisting calyx, 

 exemplified in the pomegranate. 



Sect. II. Of the External Structure of Imperfect Plants. 



1328. Plants apparently defective in one or other of the more conspicuous parts or 

 organs, whether conservative or reproductive, are denominated imperfect. The most 



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