414 



THE THREE DIVISIONS OF PLANTS. 



6. Palmje, palms; which have simple stems, that are fron- 

 dose* at the summit, and have their fructifications on a spadix 

 issuing from a spatha. 



7. Plants, which include all that do not enter into any of 

 the other divisions. These are, 



1. Herbaceous, when they die down to the root every year; 

 for in the perennial kinds, the buds are all produced on the root 

 below the surface of the ground. 



2. Shrubs, when their stems come up without budsf. 



3. Trees, when their stems come up with buds. 



Vegetables are each primarily divisible into, 1. The root. .,2. 

 The herb or plant itself... 3. The fructification. Of these the last 

 has been already treated of in the first book : the two others, 

 upon which the specific differences of vegetables more imme- 

 diately depend, come now under consideration, and will be the 

 subject matter of the ensuing chapters^. 



* See the term frons, explained in Chap. IV. Author. 



■f* Nature has put no limits between a tree and a shrub, which is only a vulgar 

 distinction. This Linnaeus acknowledges ; and argues, that his own distinction, 

 though he thinks it the best, is nevertheless exceptionable ; inasmuch as there are 

 seldom any buds upon the large trees in India ; all which must, therefore, by this 

 definition, notwithstanding their great height, be ranked with shrubs. Author. 



% It may not be improper here to obviate an objection that may be made to 

 the method pursued in thU work. It may be asked, if the matter of this third part 

 would not have stood more properly in the first. In answer to this it is admitted, 

 that the order of nature would thereby have been more directly followed : but the 

 design of this work was not so much to follow the order of nature, as to explain the 

 System of Linnaeus ; and as the Classes, Orders, and Genera, which come first in 

 the system, are grounded on the fructification, the beginning with that part of the 

 vegetable was indispensably necessary. Author. 



