63 



FABRIC OF PLANTS. 



HAVING thus given an account of the external 

 members of plants, I shall next direct the beginner's 

 attention to their whole fabric or structure, from the 

 rind and bark to the central pith ; an important part of 

 science altogether neglected by Linnsean botanists; in 

 the same way as the texture of animal bodies was 

 neglected by anatomists, previous to the time of Baron 

 Haller, and M. Bichat. 



As an animal body, then, is composed of solids and 

 fluids, the solids consisting of cellular, nervous, mus- 

 cular, and horny tissues, and the general fluids of 

 lymph and blood, besides the peculiar fluids of bile, 

 milk, and others: so the body of a plant is also com- 

 posed of solids and fluids, considerably different from 

 those of animals. The solids, as I shall now detail, 

 consist of three tissues, one composed of cells, another 

 of fibres, and a third of vessels. 



TISSUE OP CELLS. 



As the great mass of an animal body is made up of 

 flesh, often depending for support upon bones ; so the 

 great mass of a plant, from the tiny wall moss to the 

 giant oak, is made up of a texture or tissue of cells 1 , 



(1) In Latin, Tela cellulosa or Textura cellularis, formerly 

 Parenchyma, 



