44 
GENERAL FACTS RELATING TO VEGETABLES. 
If our flower has less than twenty stamens, with none of the 
peculiarities above mentioned, of connexion , position , or length , 
we have only to count the number of stamens in order to be 
certain of the class ; if there are ten stamens, it is Decandria ; 
and so on through the nine remaining classes. This is the true 
analytical process ; but when we put plants together to form a 
species, and species together to form a genus, and genera to- 
gether to form an order, and orders together to form a class, we 
then proceed in the way of Synthesis, which means putting 
together ; Analysis means separating. 
Although we are soon to enter into a particular consideration 
of all the parts of a vegetable, both as to its external appearance, 
and its various offices, and internal operations ; it may be well 
to give, at this time, a view of some subdivisions and different 
forms, of the Calyx, Corolla, Nectary, and Pericarp. 
GENERAL FACTS RELATING TO VEGETABLES. 
Plants are furnished with pores, by which they imbibe nour- 
ishment from surrounding bodies. The part which fixes the 
plant in the earth, and absorbs from it the juices necessary to 
vegetation, is the root ; this organ is never wanting. 
The stem proceeds from the root, sometimes it creeps upon 
the earth, or remains concealed in its bosom ; but generally the 
stem ascends either by its own strength, or, as in the case of 
vines, by supporting itself upon some other body. The divisions 
of the stem are its branches ; the divisions of the branches are 
its boughs. When the vegetable has no stem, the flower and 
fruit grow from the tops of the root ; but when the stem exists, 
that or its branches bear the leaves, flowers, and fruits. Herbs 
have generally soft, watery stems of short duration, which bear 
flowers once, and then die. 
Trees and shrubs have solid and woody stems ; they live and 
bear flowers many years. 
Small bodies, of a round or conical form, consisting of thin 
scales, lying closely compacted together, appear every year upon 
the stems, the boughs, and the branches of trees. They contain 
the germs of the productions of the following years, and secure 
them from the severity of the seasons. These germs, and the 
scales which cover them, are called buds. If our organs of 
sight were sufficiently acute, it is supposed we might distinguish 
in a bud the innumerable future plants which are enveloped in 
it, to be brought forward perhaps while the earth shall exist. 
Difference between analysis and synthesis — The Root — Stem — Branches 
— Boughs — Herbs — Trees and shrubs — Buds. — 
