24 THE PHILOSOPHY 



All thefe analogies, it may be remarked, are confined to large 

 animals and large vegetables ; but they hold not in that numerous 

 tribe of plants called grajjes. InRead of being filled with wood 

 and pith, their ftems are perfedly hollow ; and, to fortify thefe 

 plants. Nature has beftowed on them ftrong joints or knots, which 

 are placed at regular diftances in each fpecies. But, though 

 fome of the analogies which fubfift between the larger animals 

 and vegetables exift not in the fmaller plants, this circumftance, 

 inftead of infringing, confirms the general plan of Nature. To 

 difcover the analogies betvpeen tubular plants and animals, we 

 muft examine the ftrudture of the minuter tribes of animated be- 

 ings. The grafles have neither pith nor wood internally ; and the 

 polypus, the taenia, and many other infeds, have no bones, heart, or 

 inteftines, but are fimple tubes, perfectly refembling the empty ftems 

 of the gramineous plants. Befides, the ligneous, or at leaft the her- 

 baceous part of thefe plants, is placed on the outfide, fimilar to the 

 cruftaceous and fhell animals, whofe bones are fituated externally. 

 Another analogy muft not be omitted. The fucculent vegetables, 

 fuch as the houfe-leek, the mufhroom tribes, and many fea-plants, 

 confift almoft entirely of a pulpy or parenchymatous fubftance, and 

 may be crufhed to a jelly by the flighteft prefTure. The texture of 

 worms, caterpillars, and of all the foft infedls, is extremely fimilar 

 to that of the fucculent vegetables. 



n.— GROWTH AND NOURISHMENT- 



THE fecond fource of analogies between the plant and animal is 

 derived from the modes of their growth and nourifhment. 



Many ingenious theories have been invented, with a view to exr- 



plain the myfterious operation by which the growth and nourifh- 



3 raent 



