ORGANIC MECFIANISM. 55 



ments combining to form an irregular spongy fabric. 

 These various tissues, again, may themselves be 

 regarded as the constituent materials of which the 

 several organs of the body are constructed, with 

 different degrees of complication, according to the 

 respective functions they are called upon to perform. 

 We shall now examine the several kinds of tex- 

 tures in relation to these functions, in the order of 

 their increasing complexity ; beginning with those 

 of vegetables, which are apparently the simplest of 

 all. 



§ '2. Vegetable Organization. 



Plants, being limited in their economy to the 

 functions of nutrition and reproduction, and being 

 fixed to the same spot, and therefore in a compara- 

 tively passive condition, require for the perform- 

 ance of these functions mechanical constructions of 

 a very different kind from those which are neces- 

 sary to the sentient, the active, and the locomotive 

 animal. The organs essential to vegetables are 

 those which receive and elaborate the nutritive 

 fluids they require, those which are subservient to 

 reproduction, and also those composing the general 

 framework, which must be superadded to the whole 

 for the purpose of giving mechanical support and 

 protection to these finer organizations. As plants 

 are destined to be permanently attached to the soil, 

 and yet require the action both of air and of light ; 

 and, as they must also be defended from the inju- 

 rious action of the elements, so we find these several 

 objects provided for by three descriptions of parts : 

 namely, first, the Roots, which fix plants in their 



