PREFACE. vn 



is because it is itself subservient to the general reason- 

 ing of the science which I have endeavoured to elucidate ; 

 but it is probable that beginners will find the advantage 

 of first reading the Organography, in order to pass on 

 afterwards to the other branches. 



An elementary work of this kind must necessarily 

 contain a great number of facts already known ; but 

 perhaps botanists will find some interest in seeing them 

 connected in a point of view which will be new to several 

 of them — the organic symmetry of beings ; they will 

 remark that what characterizes this manner of describing 

 the organs — and which, I venture tobebeve, gives it more 

 correctness and importance — is, 



1st, That of considering each organ as being developed 

 or proceeding from that which serves for its immediate 

 support; or, in other terms, considering the exsertions 

 and not the insertions. 



2d, That of establishing as a rule (with exceptions 

 for the convenience of speech), that every organ ought 

 to retain the general name whenever its identity is 

 proved; and that special names of organs ought only to 

 be admitted when their identity of origin cannot be 

 recognised, and not when they present an unusual form 

 or appearance. 



od, That of reducing each part to its organic ele- 

 ments, which, once known, are considered as subservient 

 to the general laws of union, abortion, and degeneration 

 which I have established in the Theorie JElemetitaire. 



I have given to this work the name of Organography, 

 and not the too restricted one of Anatomy, because the 

 latter, which supposes a cutting of the integuments, is 

 only a slight part of the study of the structure of plants, 

 most of the organs of which are situated externally, and 

 in which it also seems that the internal ones are often 

 dependent upon the external. The anatomy, properly 



