Introduction. 



ology ; explaining the technical terms as we use them ; thus 

 making the work perfect within itself. 



As might be expected in a confessedly artificial system, plants 

 are brought together in a great number of cases, that are very 

 dissimilar in many important respects. Linnaeus himself was very 

 sensible of this, and proposed, and in fact laid the groundwork 

 of a natural system, whose object it would be to class in groups 

 those plants that resemble ^tch other in all essential particulars. 

 Jussieu came after him, and^nade great improvements in this 

 department ; he is called the Father of the Natural System. 

 Linnaeus's Artificial System dwelt chiefly on the aspects and 

 circumstances of the stamens and pistils ; the natural one of 

 Jussieu on the seed-lobes and insertion of the stamens. In the 

 natural system there are at present five classes and upwards of 

 7000 genera. 



In the flower we have witnessed the process of fructification 

 or fruit-making, a perfect seed developed from an embryo. Let 

 us now put one of these seeds in the ground, and observe how, 

 from it, the plant is matured. When surrounded by warmth and 

 moisture, it begins to expand ; the case that confined it bursts ; 

 a root runs below and a sprout appears above. The root sends 

 off filaments, which terminate in a series of little leech-like 

 mouths termed spongioles. These mouths suck up the nutri- 

 ment from the soil, and act like stomachs in instantly digesting 

 it. It has been proved beyond doubt that the fluid, in these fila- 

 ments, differs entirely from the substances it absorbs. As the 

 blood in a man's body must pass through the lungs for purifica- 

 tion, so must the sap for the same purpose be rendered fit for 

 nutriment by the leaves ; it is carried to them by the veins, and 

 arriving there, throws out its oxygen and receives a supply of 

 carbonic acid. We should remember that their respiration is the 

 very opposite of ours ; what is rejected as poison by us, is eagerly 

 taken by them as necessary to their existence, and vice versd. 

 The sap or blood, thus properly elaborated, is carried by the 

 arteries to every part of the plant After a while the bud appears, 

 the blossom opens, and the circle of phenomena once more 

 begins. 



Plants were the earliest inhabitants of our earth. The history 

 of their creation proves their possession of an existence inde- 

 pendent of matter. For the Lord God made every plant of the 



B 



