[triflVEESITT] 



Minutts 



OF 



Ac^riciiltiire and Plantings 8^x. 



DISSERTATION I. 



On the Structure and component Principles of Vegetables. 

 1. On the Structure of Vegetables, 



JL SHALL begin this section by defining a Vegetable, and then give a cursory 

 account of its stnicture. 



A Vegetable is an organized substance, — reproducible only by a peculiar 

 sort of generation, — augmentable in bulk, not simply by accretion, or by chemi- 

 cal combination, but by an enlargement of its organization,— in which a peculiar 

 vitality co-operateS with chemical, mechanical, and electrical influences, to pro- 

 duce the growth and salutary state of the body, — and which after rising into ex- 

 istence, and passing through a certain series of changes, is naturally deprived of 

 its vitality, and dissolved into its component material elements. 



The general and most obvious parts of a vegetable are five, viz. the root, 

 the stem, the branches, the leaves, and the flower; but a good microscope disco- 

 vers six organic parts in most plants. 



A 



