54 ON VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



tates that of the other; yet the more frequent 

 presence of perceptive powers, and more especi- 

 ally of a choice and capacity of motion in the 

 one kingdom, and a total absence of those qua- 

 lities in the other, present so broad and strong 

 a line of distinction, as should make us pause be- 

 fore we admit a doctrine directly at variance 

 with our common observation, and so opposed to 

 the idea we have entertained of the intents and 

 purposes of the creation. All that we ought to al- 

 low, is that resemblance only in the physical pro- 

 perties and laws of the two kingdoms, by which 

 the vitality peculiar to each is preserved, the diffe- 

 rent parts are nourished, growth promoted, secre- 

 tions produced, re-productions effected, and the 

 common principles of decay and dissolution are 

 broughtinto action. But here their analogy ceases. 

 Vegetables, we know, require a particular 

 temperature, season, soil and aspect, for their 

 growth and maturity, and, in many instances, 

 even for their very existence. In cold climates, 

 they are, in consequence, proportionally limited 

 in the number of their species ; and, in the winter, 

 even of temperate regions, many of their functions 

 are suspended ; they cease to grow, they part 

 with one of their most essential organs, their 

 leaves ; and they require the return of a more 

 congenial season, before their variously ani- 

 mating powers are again roused into action. 

 Animals, on the contrary, so long as the vital 



