4 
REPORT ON BOTANY, MDCCCXLI : 
certain matter, or that they hare committed an error, or that 
they have not yet a distinct view of the subject. The more 
inexperienced we are in a science, the more apt are we to 
suppose ourselves perfect in it, and the less are we inclined 
to confess that we have been mistaken. Finally, it is unsuit- 
able to make controversy a principal object of an annual 
report, or to conduct it in an irritable and hostile spirit, 
or to quarrel and dispute, when nothing can be said against 
the principal matter. The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 
has been very much exposed to such contentions, and a pro- 
gress of their knowledge has been rather impeded than faci- 
litated by them. My predecessor in this work, can, by no 
means, be absolved from the reproach of a contentious dis- 
position ; I shall, however, endeavour to avoid imitating him 
in that respect. 
INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF PLANTS. 
We find a treatise on the Internal Structure of Plants in 
general^ in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, second 
series, volume xiv. p. 16, 17, under the title of — “ Etudes 
Phytologiques, par le Comte de Tristan. Prem. Mem. de la 
Nature des tissus Vegetaux.” The author commences with 
the question, whether the tissue of vegetables is homogeneous 
or not. With this view he contemplates the transverse sec- 
tion of the stem of any plant — for instance of the Poppy 
(Papaver somniferuyn) ; and further, of the petiole of the 
leaf, as of Cucurhita maxima, and finds therein a double 
tissue. The first occupies the greatest part of the stem or 
petiole, and clearly consists of cells ; the second surrounds 
the vascular bundles. The latter, however, do not always 
exist, but the tissue also occurs without them. He now 
follows the fine fibres of the latter, as far as the ovarium, 
and finds, that it only exhibits itself there in bright spots, in 
Avhich no organization is perceptible. Spiral vessels are only 
subsequently produced in the axis of these fibres. The 
“ clear” unorganized substance he terms cambium, and says 
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