124 VEGETABLE ORGAIsOGRAPHY, 



The term of Phanerogamia includes the two first; 

 that of Cryptogamia, the two last. 



Those who are fond of numerical relations will 

 remark, perhaps, that the vegetable as well as the 

 animal kingdom presents four great primary classes ; 

 but I beg them to exempt me from attaching, for the 

 present, any importance to this. I own, with M. Fries, 

 that the quaternary division is frequently presented in 

 the plans of our classification ; but I do not know but 

 that this arises rather from our turn of mind, which is 

 fond of comparing things with each other, than from 

 the real nature of things. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



of the general classification of compound 



organs. 



We have analyzed the elementary organs of plants, 

 and those which are formed in a manner so immediate 

 that they may be taken for elementary ones. It must 

 now be examined how these different organs are com- 

 bined in order to form all the various parts of plants. 



In considering this subject in a very general maimer, 

 we may know that all vascular plants seem composed of 

 three principal parts only— the stem, the root, and the 

 leaves; and this theory may be demonstrated — 1st, in 

 this, that these three parts alone suffice for the life of the 

 plants, and even for a kind of multiplication of these 

 beings;— 2dly, in this, that all the other known organs 

 of plants may be considered as modifications of one of 



