XIV INTRODUCTION. 



state, all the organs of which the organic being is composed 

 in its entire developments. Thus the animal embryo con- 

 sists of the head, the trunk, and the extremities, in other 

 words, of all the parts of which the adult animal is composed. 

 In like manner, the embryo of a phanerogamous plant, of a 

 bean for example, discloses a plumule or young stem, a pair 

 of leaves or cotyledons, and a radicle or young root, in other 

 words, the entire plant in a rudimentary condition ; and by the 

 act of germination, analogous in its effects to the commence- 

 ment of life in infancy, all the parts of the plant develope 

 themselves into their wonted figure and hues in accordance 

 with those generic and specific laws to which the plant is sub- 

 ject ; but germination does not increase the number of these 

 parts, which existed before its influence was exercised on them. 



