ELEMENTS OF PLANTS. 



researches and discoveries. It is enough to begin with 

 the leading principles that have been established; with 

 these he will be able to work more intelligently than 

 ever before, and to go on continually adding to his 

 knowledsre. 



SECTION n. PLANTS DIVIDED INTO AN ORGANIC AND AN 

 INORGANIC PART. 



In endeavoring to explain, in a simple manner, 

 something of this desirable branch of knowledge, we 

 will commence with the plant, and give in a clear 

 connected shape the information that has been collected 

 by the most approved writers and experimenters con- 

 cerning it. Hard words and obscure phrases will be 

 avoided whenever it is possible. 



We commence our examination with some inquiry 

 into the nature of the materials which compose all of 

 our crops. The first result arrived at is the existence 

 of two grand classes of bodies, to one of which, or to 

 a mixture of both, belongs every part of the plant. 



In connection with this fact, there is one peculiarity 

 in all vegetable substances, that early attracts our 

 attention. Whether we take the hard wood, the soft 

 flexible straw, the leaf, or the root, we find that all are 

 more or less combustible. When dry they generally 

 burn readily, and with a flame, but we see at the same 

 time that all does not disappear : the stalk of straw, 

 or the piece of wood, for the most part burns away; 

 but after the flame has gone out, there is always an ash 

 left. Thus we establish a grand division : one part 

 burns and disappears; another part is incombustible, 

 and remains. Chemists have named the part that burns 

 away, organic^naiter ,- and the part that remains, or 

 the ash, inorganic matter. 



Fire, then, is one test, by means of which we dis- 



