LETTER III. 



27 



ology of a still more general character, and may be 

 more clearly apprehended if this proposition be laid 

 alongside of it. The proposition is this : That all 

 plants without exception, even those called perennial, 

 are strictly annual plants, live therefore only one year, 

 and reach their full size within the year ; that is to 

 say, that all plants spring up year by year either from 

 seeds or buds, and attain their maturity within the 

 year, forming, in the course of it, either seeds or buds, 

 or both seeds and buds, for the production of similar 

 plants the following year ; that, as the season advances, 

 their vital actions languish, and their organism becomes 

 drier and more rigid — changes these which constitute 

 their old age ; that at the close of the season they 

 die ; and that on this happening, the materials com- 

 posing them speedily undergo either an entire or a 

 partial disintegration, — in the one case wholly disap- 

 pearing, — in the other, some portion remaining to serve 

 ulterior purposes in the vegetable economy of nature, 

 but still remaining only as dead vegetable matter. 



5. And in connection with this general proposition, 

 and as forming part of it, it may be further stated, 

 that the only difference between the plants called 

 annual and those called perennial is, that the former 

 produce seeds only for the propagation of their species, 

 and are reared annually from seeds alone : while the 

 latter produce both seeds and buds, and, as perennial, 

 spring up each year from buds ; and, therefore, that 



