II. ORGANISATION* 



THE economy of vegetation requires a certain 

 apparatus or system of organs. These are principally 

 the vital, nutritive, conducting, preservative, and 

 reproductive. 



The vital organs are those parts of plants in which 

 the life resides, and whence all the growth and expan- 

 sion of the different members originate. In a seed, it 

 is the embryo of the future plant; and this, after it 

 is developed, continues possessed of vitality variously 

 located in the fabric, according to the nature or pecu- 

 liar conformation of the plant itself. In some it has 

 a fixed station ; whence all divisions proceed. It is 

 so located in bulbous and tuberous stems, and in what 

 is called the crown of many herbaceous plants. In 

 the case of shrubs, trees, and many suifruticose and 

 herbaceous plants, the vital principle is not confined 

 to one place, but is borne up with and spread over 

 the exterior of the stem and branches, sometimes into 

 the leaves, and over the surface of the wood in the 

 roots also. When existing as in a seed it is called 

 the corculum ; and the same term may not be mis- 

 applied in speaking of it as found in bulbs and tubers; 

 but in respect of trees, shrubs, &c., a better designa- 

 tion will be the vital indusium or envelope, because 



