118 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
to the reproduction of the individual, and consequent preservation 
of the species. 
But what is a flower? What definition shall we give of a 
flower, that can pretend to exactness, and at the same time be 
framed in scientific terms? A rigorous definition of the flower is 
more difficult than one would think. It was a saying of Linneus 
that minerals grew, plants grew and lived, animals grew, lived, and 
felt ; but this is now known to be altogether incorrect, for certain 
plants not only grow and live, but give every indication of feeling, 
witness the Mimosa, or Sensitive plant, which closes its leaves 
on being touched, and some of the most obscure plants among the 
Conferve, which move about by the action of their own e7/ia, or 
hairs, until they have found a resting-place for themselves. He 
would, in short, be a rash man who should attempt a definition of 
plant or mineral in these enlightened days. Such, however, was 
not the opinion of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the celebrated philo- 
sopher of Geneva, who was indebted to the study and cultivation 
of botany for some of the happiest hours of his life. He has left, 
in his “Letters on Botany,” a book full of interest and sound 
science, in which he thus expresses himself on the definition which 
can be given of a flower :— 
“Tf I resigned my imagination to the pleasing sensations which 
this word seems to call forth, I should write a paper agreeable, 
perhaps, to sentimental shepherds, but very unsatisfactory to 
botanists. Let us put aside for a moment the vivid colours, sweet 
odours, and graceful forms of flowers, and try, in the first place, 
to understand the organised being which unites these attributes. 
Nothing at first sight appears easier. Who thinks he requires to 
be taught what a flower is? ‘When no one asks me what is 
time,’ said St. Augustine,‘I know it very well; but I do not 
know it when I am asked.’ One might say as much of a flower, 
perhaps of its beauty even, which is the prey of time. I am 
presented with a flower, and I am told, ‘Here is a flower.’ This is 
showing it to me, I confess, but not defining it; nor will this 
inspection enable me to decide, in the case of any other plant, 
whether what I see is, or is not, a flower ; for there are multitudes 
of vegetables which have in none of hair parts the apparent 
colour which Ray and Tourncfort have introduced into their 
