258 BIOLOGY. 



metals are represented by iron, which occurs in all 

 plants. 



b. ORGANIC VEGETABLE BODIES. 



1368. These must be regarded as the repetition of the 

 inorganic bodies. The alcohol, which does not indeed 

 occur ready formed in the plant, but is developed out of the 

 sugar, certainly corresponds to the sether. The aetherial 

 or volatile oils, and the balsams and resins that are thence 

 formed, correspond with the air. The mucus, gelatine, 

 albumen, and sugar correspond to water ; the wood, 

 gum, starch and vegetable mould, to the earth. Of the 

 organic salts, plants contain tannin, with azetic, benzoic, 

 mucic, gelatic, saccharic, tartaric, citric, malic, oxalic, tan- 

 nic, oleic,isatic, and hydrocyanic acids. The alkaline bodies 

 are pungent, bitter, stupefying, and saponaceous ; the 

 fixed or greasy oils, the wax and the vegetable butters, 

 are to be regarded as organic Inflammables ; the colouring 

 matters, as the organic ores. 



1369. These bodies intermixed form the compound 

 vegetable matters. What has been called vegetable sap 

 is for plants, what the blood is for animals. It consists 

 for the greatest part of water and mucus, starch, sugar, 

 acids, and salts. It passes over into vinous and then 

 into acetous fermentation. The starch-granules appear 

 to form in the cells. 



1370. To the secreted saps belong the coloured rnilky 

 juices present in particular vessels, and consisting for the 

 most part of water with resins, as in the celandine and 

 spurge. The particular saps, especially those of the 

 fruits, are very composite, consisting for the most part 

 either of mucus, sugar and acids, or occasionally of gela- 

 tine and albumen. Solid compound matters are almost 

 universally made up of flour, which consists principally 

 of starch and gum ; or they are furthermore mucus in 

 the roots and seeds. The excreted or separated matters, 

 which no longer interpose in the vegetable process, are 

 the etherial oils, resins, fixed oils, colouring matters, poi- 

 sonous substances, gum, tannin, nectar-juices, and even 

 water. 



