BOOK I. 



THE ANATOMY OF PLANTS. 



THREE men of genius, Grew, Malpighi, and Leuwenhoeck, 

 founded vegetable anatomy almost at the same time in Eng- 

 land, Italy, and Holland. This subject was unknown in an- 

 tiquity, for as it has only been with the aid of that grand 

 revealer, the microscope, that men have been able to pen- 

 etrate the secrets of vegetable life, the discovery of this 

 instrument necessarily preceded that of the structure of 

 plants. 



The microscope very soon taught us that the whole veg- 

 etable edifice is built up from the cell, and that this is the 

 creative element of the different organs of the plant, not- 

 withstanding their diversity. 



The cells consist of little microscopic vesicles, at first 

 globular, but which, by increase and mutual compression, 

 become many-sided. And these elements, which conceal 

 themselves from our eyes, animated by an inconceivable 

 plastic force, and multiplying at a prodigious rate, cause 

 new worlds to arise. " Give me a lever and a fulcrum," 

 said Archimedes, " and I will lift the globe." M. Easpail, 

 paraphrasing the geometer of Syracuse, was able to say, 

 almost " Give me a living cellule, and I will reproduce 

 all creation." 



