BOTANY. 



35 



1 



Mirbcl. 



Knight. 



Hiory. scan Mirbcl, professor of botany at the Athenteum 



^ in I'.ui;, ,11. d T. A. Knight, who resides a.; a private 



tan ut Elton, i !;m. The former cn- 



.ntagc which his official situation in 

 ;ropolis of France could give him, ha. 

 able, after much delicate investigation, and with the 

 aid of very powerful microscopes, to trace the anato- 

 my of vegetables with more success than any of 

 his predecessors. And of late he has made a present 

 of no ordinary merit to the scientific world, in a pub- 

 lication on the subject, which he entitles, Traite 

 d' Anatomic ft de Physiologtt I'cgctale. 



Mr Knight, who has devoted his attention for many 

 years to vegetable physiology, and conducted his in- 

 quiries in a very superior style, began to state his 

 ideas on the subject, in a communication made to the 

 Royal Society of London in 1808 : and since that 

 time he has written several other papers relating to 

 it, which have been read before that learned body, 

 and inserted in their Transactions. They are all dis- 

 tinguished in a high degree for ingenuity and lucid ar- 

 rangement ; and the facts and deductions which they 

 contain, go far to establish an entirely new theory of 

 vegetation. Of this, however, as well as of the dis- 

 coveries of Mirbel, we shall have an opportunity of 

 saying something more particular in a subsequent 

 part of this article, and shall therefore merely add at 

 present, that they are well entitled to the diligent and 

 attentive examination of the curious. 



l',i siili < tli writers now mentioned, some others History. 

 who have contributed, though in a more limited way, 

 to throw light on tli '- economy, might have 



been taken notice of, as Priestley and logenhouiz, 

 who made experiments on the extrication of air from 

 the leaves ; Iledwig ai;d Pcntedora, who treated of 

 the nature and functions of the flower; Daubcnton, 

 who wrote on the formation of the wood ; Decandolle 

 and Van Marum, on the irritability of the vegetable 

 fibre ; and Humboldt, on the germination of seeds ; 

 Ludwig, Hebenstreet, Walker, and Coulomb, on the 

 ascent and elaboration of the sap. 



Still more recently, our countryman, Daniel Ellis, E "' s - 

 has prosecuted a portion of the chemical department 

 of vegetation with singular success and ability. He 

 seems to have opened a road to new truths of the first 

 importance, in the two parts aheady published, of 

 " his Inquiry into the changes induced on the at- 

 mospheric air by germination, vegetation, &c. ;" 

 which contain the sum of all the facts hitherto ascer- 

 tained on this subject by himself or by others. His 

 theoretical views have not yet been given to the 

 world: there is no doubt, however, that when they 

 do appear, they will do credit to their indefatigable 

 and ingenious author. But as the limits of this ar- 

 ticle forbid us to take a more extensive range, we 

 must content ourselves at present with having merely 

 referred to them. 



'crmmo- 

 logy. 



PART I. TERMINOLOGY. 



J. ERMiN'OLor.Y is that branch of botany which ex- 17. Stinging (urcns), where a burning sensation 13 



plains all the terms employed in the description of induced by small hairs, 

 plants. 



SECT. I. Terms used in general Description. 



AKT. T. OUTEU SURFACE. 1. Glancing (nilidu*), 

 where the surface shines from extreme smoothness. 



2. Even (levin}, without strix, dots, or furrows. 



3. Smooth (gtaber), without any visible hairs, 

 bristles, or thorns. 



18. Fringed (ciUatus), where a row of hairs, equally ' 

 long, is set on the margin. 



19. Warty (papillosut), when there are small fleshy 

 warts. 



20. Pustular (papulosus), when there are small 

 dimples or cavities. 



21. Muricated (mar/Cains'), when armed with small 

 short seines. 



22. Glutinous (ghiliiwfiti'j, when covered with 



}. Dotted (punctatus), fine dots perceptible to the slimy matter, soluble in water. 



eye, not to the touch. 



5. Rough (sender), small dots felt, but not seen. 



6. Rugged (aspcr), where these dots are both felt 

 and seen. 



7. Hispid (hispidus), beset with short stiff hairs. 



8. Rigid (hiring), beset with moderately short 

 hairs, but stiff. 



9. Hairy [pilosut), beset with long single hairs. 



logy. 



23. Viscid (rz'iC/Vw.v), when covered with a viscid 

 resinous mat', r. 



21. Striated (strialut}, when the surface is finely 

 streaked. 



25. Furrowed (sufcnli/s), when the streaks become 

 deep. 



ART. II. ST A TB OF VEGETATION, 1. Ge:-mina- s-ate of 





tion (germlnatio), the swelling of the seedj, and the vegeiatioa. 



10. Villous (vilksus), beset with long, soft, white evolution of the tender leaves. 



hairs. 2. Vernation (frondexcentia, vcrnatio), when the 



11. Pubescent (jntbescens), covered with short fine swollen buds of trees and shrubs unfold their leaves, 

 white hairs. 3. Sleep (somnv*}. the collapse of some leaves du- 



12. Silky (sericeus), a white and shining surface, ring the evening and ni^ht. 



from numerous and almost invisible hairs. 



13. Woolly (lanatus), from numerous white hairs leaves. 



4. Defoliation (dffouatio), the falling off of the 



easily separable. 



.3. Virginity (vir-ddlas), the state which imme- 



It. Tomentous (tomentosus), when fine hairs are diately precedes the unfolding of the flower buds. 



matted together. 



15. Bearded (I 



16. Strigose ( 



are thickest at the lowest part. 



C. Expansion [anthetis), ihs perfect expansion of 



15. Bearded (barba/us), when tufts of hair appear. the flowers. 



16. Strigose [strigotut), when sniall close biisiks 7. Estivation (cctfivatio), the period of perfection 



in the flower. 



