ON VEGETABLE PHVSIOLOGY. 55 



principle be continued, preserve their various 

 functions in full activity and similitude, in what- 

 ever temperature, season, soil, or aspect, they 

 may be placed ; and a loss of any one of their 

 important organs, or a considerable interruption 

 to the functions of the others, very frequently ter- 

 minates in their general dissolution. 



Vegetables, again, have not, as we before inti- 

 mated, a brain and nervous system to endow them 

 with perceptive powers, or, as far as we can 

 judge, with sensation ; nor muscles to promote 

 their locomotion, so necessary to most animals 

 which are to make choice of their own food, and 

 whose means of supply are not confined to a nar- 

 row circle as in vegetables, in which nature by 

 their peculiar mechanism, has bestowed on them 

 the means of obtaining their nourishment from the 

 soil which first gave them birth. For this pur- 

 pose the latter are permanently fixed to one spot 

 in the earth, and the vital spark having once been 

 excited, their different movements are rendered 

 dependent upon principles, in which the will has 

 no concern, and where perception cannot be 

 required. 



These reflections necessarily lead us to a con- 

 sideration of the structure and functions of vege- 

 tables, in which the analogy of the two kingdoms 

 will be further illustrated, and of the line of 

 tinction, we hope, satisfactorily explained. 



