•fthe Domestic Gardener^ s Manual. 285 



Bot determinate rudimental structure, the combinations of the 

 introsuscepted aliment would be fortuitously arranged, and 

 Jill specific structure would be irregular and confusedly 

 disposed. 



These, my humble opinions of vegetable elements, accre- 

 tion, and developement, will readily account for my second 

 question, relative to the instances of organic bodies being 

 formed out of inorganic matter, and on which I requested 

 information. On this question you have been pleased to give 

 as an instance the new growth of a potted vine, forced under 

 your own eye. You solicit my attention to the new organis- 

 ation exhibited in the elongated shoots, and ask whence it 

 came. I feel perfectly confident in stating that the whole 

 was contained in the buds before expansion, and the increase 

 of the elements was derived from the manured earth and 

 water with which the vine was supplied. The chemical 

 elements of carbon, &c., contained in the expansible organ- 

 isation of the buds were excited into action by heat and 

 light; and, in every moment of the growth, fresh supplies of 

 those elements were received to dilate the pellicle of every 

 cell, elongate every tube, and engross every fibre composing 

 the several membranes of the plant. I could prove by a 

 thousand instances, were it necessary, that vegetable as well 

 as animal organisation has rudimental preexistence. It is 

 a fact admitting not a shadow of doubt; for, if it could be 

 proved that the lowest and most insignifieant of vegetables 

 was self-produced, or if even the most inconsiderable portion 

 of a vegetable organ could be formed from the mere union 

 of vegetable elements, then, in the same way, we should not 

 only have adventitious buds, flowers, and fruit, but adven- 

 titious herbs, and shrubs, and trees. 



Chemistry can form crystals, marble, and even the hardest 

 of all mineral bodies, out of what was once in a state of 

 fluidity ; but can any possible combination of chemical bodies 

 and powers originate the smallest i^ungus, or the minutest 

 species of Infusoria ? Some natural philosophers labour in vain 

 to account for the primitive formations of plants and animals by 

 their principles of science ; and so, I dare think, will vege- 

 table physiologists be puzzled, if they deny preexisting organ- 

 isation. If, therefore, a plant cannot originate itself, nor 

 acquire existence without a rudiment ; so neither, it follows as 

 a corollary, can the smallest member or appendage of a 

 vegetable be developed, unless it arise from a preexisting 

 congenerous membrane. (See Dom. Gard. Man., p. 274.) 



From these circumstances we arrive at, I think, a just and 

 rational conclusion, viz., that vegetable sap is not oi-ganisahle ; 



