160 STRUCTURE OP VEGETABLES. 



LESSON XXXIV. 



THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM STRUCTURE OP 

 VEGETABLES LEAVES. 



THE natural objects with which the reader has 

 been made acquainted compose the animal king- 

 dom, and every thing contained in it has animal 

 life, that is, it can move and feel. We now come 

 to the second grand division into which the pro- 

 ductions of nature have been arranged, namely the 

 vegetable kingdom. 



The objects which come under this division 

 live, but the life they enjoy differs from animal 

 life. Vegetables can neither move nor feel, they 

 grow and perish in the same situations, and though 

 they appear sensible to light and heat, they show 

 no trace of feeling beyond this. 



The term vegetable is applied to trees, shrubs, 

 grasses, fungi, mosses, ferns, and lichens. It is 

 these which clothe the earth with verdure, and 

 cover it with woods and forests, and which supply 

 a great part of the food of man and of the rest of 

 the animal kingdom. 



The structure of vegetables is highly curious, 

 and consists of a number of narrow tubes, through 

 which a fluid is conveyed called the sap, and of 

 woody fibres. The outer bark of plants is in 

 general hard and rough, and serves as a protection 

 to the parts beneath. These are an inner fibrous 



