114 TAXONOMY. 



But it is a matter of consistency, when we admit the nature 

 of the secreted juices among the characters, to understand the 

 existence of pecuHar organs and vessels, which secrete and 

 contain these juices. If we have not yet completely ascer- 

 tained the internal structure of these organs, we are justified 

 in assuming it, when, instead of the organs themselves, we 

 exhibit their productions, namely, the nature of their secreted 

 juices. 



171. 



But it is not enouoh to know, that the org-ans deserve more 

 attention than their products ; in every function we must 

 know the means to be employed for estimating the import- 

 ance of the organs. Sometimes reason, and sometimes obser- 

 vation, are these means. 



Reasoning can only be employed when we know the use of 

 an organ ; then we obtain, by a simple exercise of reason, an 

 idea of its importance. If we attend to the organs of propa- 

 gation, these are evidently of more importance than their in- 

 teguments. If we compare together the sexual parts, both of 

 these parts are alike indispensable ; but the male organs per- 

 form their part for but a very short time, and in this respect 

 may be compared to the stigma, which disappears after im- 

 pregnation. But as the female organ, beside this short-lived 

 part, contains another, for which all the other parts are con- 

 structed, it is plain that the female organ is of more import- 

 ance than the male, and that the part of it which lasts is of 

 more importance than that which passes away. As, farther, 

 in the permanent female organ, the integument, or the fruit, 

 may be separated from the seed, and exists but for it, the 

 seed has thus a higher value than the fruit. And when, 

 lastly, we divide the seed into the embryon and the albuminous 

 substance, or, in the want of the latter, when we distinguish 

 between the cotyledons and the young plant, then the latter 

 has a greater value than the other parts of the seed. If these 

 conclusions are just, we have then the following degrees in the 

 importance of these organs. In the 1^^ place stands the em- 

 bryon, the ultimate object of the whole vegetation, 2. The 



