128 
SOLID PARTS OF VEGETABLES. 
you now perceive that plants, like animals, are a collection of 
fibres ; that they have parts which are analagous to our skin, 
bones, flesh, and blood ; that they are living, organized beings, 
composed of solid and fluid parts, and like animals, the subjects 
of life and death. 
Plants differ from animals in not possessing any of the organs 
of sense. They can neither see, hear, taste, smell, nor touch. 
Some vegetables, however, seem to have a kind of sensibility 
like that derived from the organs of touch ; they tremble and 
shrink back upon coming in contact with other substances ; 
some turn themselves round to the sun, as if enjoying its rays. 
There is a mystery in these circumstances which we cannot 
penetrate, and it is not yet fully known at Avhat point in the 
scale of existence animal life ends, and vegetable life com- 
mences. Some animals, like the sponge and corals, seem al- 
most destitute of any kind of sensation, and yet they are ranked in the 
animal kingdom. On the subject of the distinctions and analo- 
gies between plants and animals, Ave shall dwell more fully 
hereafter. 
SOLID PARTS OF VEGETABLES. 
At present we have to consider the solid parts of the vegetable 
system ; these are all composed of a membranous substance, 
which exists in every part of the plant, forming by various mod- 
ifications the different textures which the vegetable system ex- 
hibits. This membranous substance appears chiefly under two 
elementary forms : viz. 1st, that of cellular texture ; 2d, vascu , - 
tar te'xture. 
1st. Cellular texture , according to the opinion of Mirbel, is 
composed of a mass of little hexagonal cells, resembling 
honey comb. Another French Botanist* compares the appear- 
ance of the cellular texture to the froth of fermenting li- 
quor ; he considers that each cell is disconnected with the others; 
while Mirbel believes that the divisions of the membrane which 
forms these cells, are common to contiguous cells. The cellular 
system in animals contains the fat ; in vegetables it is generally 
filled with resinous, oily, or saccharine juices. In some cases the 
cells contain air only. They are usually marked by small dots, 
which are supposed to be apertures, through which fluids are 
transmitted from one cell to an other. 
* Dutrochet. 
plants analogous to animals — Difficult to determine where vegetable life 
commences. Solid parts of plants — membranous substance under two 
forms — cellular texture — how situated. 
