RUDIMENTS OF THE NATURAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY. 
39 
supports, all of which had, in appearance, finished their progress, and were firmly 
fixed in the soil, we should unhesitatingly consider them divisions of an ascending 
axis, which had united into a common trunk at the point where, knowing their 
descending origin, we are satisfied they primarily protruded. 
We may justify so detailed a reference to an isolated plant, by the maxim of 
exemplification which we have before prescribed to ourselves. To our eyes, the 
characters thus delineated cast a more certain liglit on the growth of Endogena 
than any more collective circumstances that could be adduced. We have only to 
suppose the exterior accumulations of the fibres — usually called roots — of Vandanus 
still confined within the stem, and we then perceive, at one glance, that its trunk 
is not, literally, less at the lower than at the upper end ; that its numerous 
auxiliary props are incontrovertibly parts of itself ; that in all Endogens the same 
mode of enlargement is carried on, though within the limits of the cuticle, and 
concealed from our ken ; and, finally, that notwithstanding the principal fountain- 
head of all accretions lies in the fluids extracted from the soil, these are assimilated, 
concreted, and solidified in the leaves, and issue thence in the form of fibres, 
which make up the woody matter of both stems and roots. 
Were speculation and theorising not in some degree interdicted from such 
professed abstracts of existing hypotheses as the present, we could wish to prolong 
the preceding surmise at the origin of roots. Not wishing to violate this restric- 
tion, we shall just deliver it as our deliberate conviction, that the source of roots 
in all plants is similar to that of the curious appendages to the Vandanus^ merely 
being carried to the earth through internal channels, instead of exhibiting them- 
selves on the outside of the bole before reaching the ground. 
Bulbous plants rank next to palms, in point of ornament, beneath the Endo- 
genous sub-class. The leading property of the whole group is very prominent in 
this division. All are cognisant of the truth that bulbs expand from the centre, 
produce new scales around the middle of their substance, and are never aggran- 
dised from without. But many who scan these pages may not know that bulbs 
are real stems, possessing every quality for which these are distinguished, save 
that of elongating into a lengthened or conspicuous axis ; and for such it is 
requisite to state this much, that the previous declaration may be duly compre- 
hended. 
Grasses, although excessively numerous, and many of them of the greatest 
value, are the most inscrutable of all Endogens. Their cubical construction — the 
result of the amazing quickness with which they spring to maturity — almost 
defies any arrangement under divisions founded essentially on the elementary 
consistence of stems. Still, those whose culm thickens at all after being first 
inflated to its natural extent, always receive the augmentation from the interior ; 
and the simple leaves, as well as one-lobed seeds of this order, will sufliciently 
guide the inquirer to a knowledge of their Endogenous description. 
Our arrangement forbids that we should now dilate upon other orders ; and 
