PLANT. 



plate, the month and day proposed, and 

 turn the plate till the given day of the 

 month stand against the hour and minute 

 required ; and the plate will then repre- 

 sent the face of the heavens, by showing 

 what stars are then rising in the meri- 

 dian, or what setting. 2. To know at 

 what hour and minute any star rises or 

 sets, &c. Turn the moveable plate till 

 the given star reaches the horizon east 

 or west, and against the given day, on 

 the moveable plate, is the hour and mi- 

 nute on the exterior or immoveable one: 

 and in the same manner may most of the 

 problems, usually resolved by the celes- 

 tial globe, be determined. 



PLANT, in botany, an organic vegeta- 

 ble body, consisting of roots and other 

 parts. Whether capable either of sensa- 

 tion, or of spontaneous motion, is not yet 

 fully ascertained. It attaches itself to 

 other bodies, in such a mannej: as to de- 

 rive nourishment from them, and to pro- 

 pagate itself by seeds. The constituent 

 parts of plants are the roots, stems, 

 branches, rind, or bark, leaves, flowers, 

 and seeds ; which greatly vary, both in 

 figi-re and size, according to the nature 

 of particular trees, shrubs, &c. Their 

 various appearances have induced bota- 

 nists to divide the vegetable kingdom 

 into orders, classes, genera, species, and 

 varieties ; for an account of which see 

 BOTANY. 



According to the Linnsean system, 

 plants take their denominations from the 

 sex of their flowers, in the following 

 manner : 1. Hermaphrodite plants, are 

 such as upon the same root bear flowers 

 that are all hermaphrodite, as in most ge- 

 nera. 2. Androgynous, male and female, 

 such as upon the same root bear both 

 male and female flowers, as in the class 

 Moncecia. 3. Male, such as upon the 

 same root bear male flowers only, as in 

 the class Dicecia. 4. Female, such as upon 

 the same root bear female flowers only, 

 as in the class Dioecia. 5. Polygamous, 

 such as, either in the same individual 

 plant, or in different individual plants of 

 the same species, have hermaphrodite 

 flowers, and flowers of either or both 

 sexes, as in the class Polygamia, All 

 plants, however minute, are propagated 

 by seed ; and so easy is their cultivation, 

 that in many instances they may be rear- 

 ed by parting their roots, or depositing 

 layers, cuttings, &c. of the parent stock, 

 in such soils as are most congenial to 

 their nature. Hence some botanists con- 

 sider them as somewhat analogous to 

 animals ; a conjecture that is strongly CQIJ- 



roborated by the regular circulation of the 

 sap throughout all their parts; and by the 

 sleep of plants, or the faculty which some 

 possess of assuming at night a position 

 different from that in which they appear 

 during the day. In the second volume 

 of the Manchester Transactions, we find 

 some speculations on the perceptive 

 power of vegetables, by Dr. Percival, 

 who attempts to show, by the several ana- 

 logies of organization, life, instinct, spon- 

 taneity, and self-motion, that plants, like 

 animals, are endued both with the powers 

 of perception and enjoyment. The at- 

 tempt, though ingeniously supported, 

 however, fails to convince. That there 

 is an analogy between animals and vege- 

 tables is certain ; but we cannot from 

 thence conclude, that they either per- 

 Ceive or enjoy. Botanists have, it is true, 

 derived from anatomy and physiology al- 

 most all the terms employed in the de- 

 scription of plants. But we cannot from 

 thence conclude, that their organization, 

 though it bears an analogy to that of ani- 

 mals, is the sign of a living principle, if 

 to this principle we annex the idea of 

 perception. Yet so fully is our author 

 convinced of the truth of it, that he does 

 not think it extravagant to suppose, that, 

 in some future period, perception may 

 be discovered to extend even beyond the 

 limits now assigned to vegetable life. 



Mr. Good, the learned author of the 

 translation of Lucretius, delivered in the} 

 spring of the present year, before the 

 Medical Society of London, a discourse 

 " On the general Structure and Physio- 

 logy of Plants compared with those of 

 Animals, and the mutual Convertibility 

 of their Organic Elements," which con- 

 tained much interesting matter, and many 

 curious and ingenious speculations. He 

 began by assuming, what indeed is the 

 basis of the sexual system, that every 

 thing that has life is produced from an 

 egg ; that the egg of the plant is its seed. 

 The seed is sometimes naked, and some- 

 times covered with a pericarp, which is 

 of various forms and structures : the seed 

 itself consists internally of a corculum, or 

 little heart, and externally of a paren- 

 chymatous substance, called a cotyledon, 

 which is necessary for the germination 

 and future growth of the seed, and may 

 be denominated its lungs or placentule. 

 The corculum is the " punctum saliens" 

 of vegetable life, and to this the cotyledrn 

 is subservient. The corcle consists of an 

 ascending and descending part : the for- 

 mer is called its plumule, which gives 

 birth to the trunk and branches,; from 



