296 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF THE INDIVIDUAL PLANT. 



What in the vegetable kingdom ought to be con- 

 siclered as an Individual ? 



Illiterate, and even educated persons, accustomed to 

 see all the higher animals endowed with a life of their 

 own, have with difficulty believed that all which is pre- 

 sented under an analogous appearance can present 

 really different phenomena ; and have had much greater 

 difficulty in forming an idea of beings, in appearance 

 simple, but in reality an assemblage of individuals. They 

 have expressed great surprise when zoologists have 

 shewn that there exist apparently simple animals, but 

 which, in reality, are composed of several beings collected 

 together, living, however, with a common life : such are 

 the Botryllae, Pyrosomse, Polyclinums, and probably the 

 fresh-water Hydras and Polypes. Passing to the 

 vegetable kingdom, the question is whether plants are 

 single individuals, as vertebrate animals, or individuals 

 collected together, as the Polyclinums. 



The common opinion is, that a Willow, Cherry, Cab- 

 bage, &c. are so many single individuals ; but when we 

 examine them, we find that they are singularly divisible : 

 almost all their parts are capable of being separated from 

 the whole, and of forming a new individual. This division 

 can go on ad infinitum; and there are examples, such 

 as the first Weeping Willow introduced into Europe, 

 (I select this example, because we only possess one 



