PLANT. 



the skin, but in the language of the poet, 

 which is also the language of nature, 

 freeze the blood itself, making 



1 each particular hair to stand on end 



Like quills upon the fretful porcupine :' 

 while hope, pleasure, agreeable expecta- 

 tion, smooth, soften, and expand it to an 

 equal degree, and, figuratively, perhaps 

 literally, lubricate it with the oil of joy. 

 More especially must we come to this con- 

 clusion, while in conjunction herewith, we 

 survey, in various species of the vegetable 

 kingdom, as strong a contractility and irri- 

 tability as are to be met with in the most 

 contractile and irritable muscles of the 

 most sentient animals. 



" Yet, could it even be proved that the 

 vessels of plants are incapable of being 

 made to contract by any power whatever, 

 still should we have no great difficulty in 

 conceiving a perfect circulatory system in 

 animals or vegetables without any such 

 cause, whilst we reHect that one half of 

 the circulation of the blood in man him* 

 self is accomplished without such a con- 

 trivance; and this, too, the more diffi- 

 cult half; as every one knows that the 

 veins have, for the most part, to oppose 

 ihe attraction of gravitation, instead of 

 being- able to take advantage of it. 



" To argue, therefore, against the exist- 

 ence of a circulation of blood, or sap, in 

 plants, from the single circumstance that 

 we are not able to prove demonstrably 

 their possession either of muscular fibres, 

 or of a regular systole and diastole, is 

 merely to argue ex ignorantid, and in de- 

 fiance of facts and experiments, which, if 

 not absolutely decisive, are perhaps as 

 decisive as the nature of the case will 

 allow." 



Having established this point,the author 

 proceeds to point out some striking re- 

 semblances in plants to the economy and 

 habits of animals. To these we can but 

 briefly allude. 



Plants, like animals, are propagated by 

 sexual connection : " although among 

 vegetables we meet with a few instances 

 of propagation by other means, as, for 

 instance, by slips and offsets, or by buds 

 and bulbs, the parallelism, instead of 

 being hereby diminished, is only drawn 

 the closer ; for we meet with just as many 

 instances of the same varieties of propa- 

 gation among animals. Thus the hydra, or 

 polype, as it is more generally called,the 

 asterias, and several species of the leech, 

 as the hirudo viridis, for example, are 

 uniformly propagated by lateral sections, 

 or instinctive slips or offsets; while almost 

 every genus of zoophytic worms is only 



capable of increase by buds, bulbs, or 

 knobs. 



" The blood of plants, like that of ani- 

 mals, instead of being simple, is com- 

 pound, and consists of a great multitude 

 of compacter corpuscles, globules lor the 

 most part, but not always globules, float- 

 ing in a looser and almost diaphanous 

 fluid. From this common current of vita- 

 lity, plants, like animals, secrete a vari- 

 ety of substances of different, and fre- 

 quently of opposite powers and qualities, 

 substances nutritive, medicinal or de- 

 structive. And as in animal life, so also 

 in vegetable, it is often observed that the 

 very same tribe, or even individual, that 

 in some of its organs secretes a whole- 

 some aliment, in other organs secretes a 

 deadly poison. As the viper pours into 

 the reservoir situated at the bottom of 

 his hollow tusk a fluid fatal to other ani- 

 mals, while in the general substance of 

 his body he offers us not only a healthful 

 nutriment, but in some sort, an antidote for 

 the venom of his jaw : so the jatropha 

 manihot, or Indian cassava, secretes a 

 juice extremely poisonous in its root, 

 while its leaves" are regarded as a com- 

 mon esculent in the country, and are 

 eaten like spinach-leaves among our- 

 selves. 



" Animals, as we all know, are liable 

 to a great variety of diseases ; so, too, 

 are vegetables ; to diseases as numerous, 

 as varied, and as fatal; to diseases epi- 

 demic, endemic, sporadic ; to scabies, 

 pernio ulcer, gangrene; to polysarca, 

 atrophy, and, above all, to invermination. 

 Whatever, in fine, be the system of noso- 

 logy to which we are attached, it is im- 

 possible for us to put our hand upon any 

 one class or order of diseases which they 

 describe, without putting our hand, at 

 the same time, upon some disease to 

 which plants are subject in common 

 with animals. 



" There are some tribes of animals that 

 exfoliate their cuticle annually; such are 

 grass hoppers, spiders, several species of 

 crabs, and serpents. Among vegetables 

 we meet with a similar variation from 

 the common rule, in the shrubby cinque- 

 foil, indigenous to Yorkshire, and the 

 plane-tree of the West Indies. Animals 

 are occasionally divided into the two 

 classes of locomotive or migratory, and 

 fixed or permanent ; vegetables may par- 

 take of a similar classification. Unques- 

 tionably the greater number of animals 

 are of the former section, yet in every or- 

 der of worms we meet with some instan- 

 ces that naturally appertain to the latter, 



