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BOOK 11. 
O F T H E 
VEGETABLE STRUCTURE; 
AND THE 
LIFE OF PLANTS. 
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INTRODUCTION. 
W E have feen the Progrefs of Botany, and the Rife of Sydems ; 
and there will be a place to examine each : to (hew its merit 
and defeds ; and to enquire how far thefe may be ferviceable to the 
eftablifhing that great article a natural Arrangement of Plants : 
for all hitherto are merely artificial. 
To advance by regular fteps towards this great objed, we are firfl to en- 
quire what Vegetables truly and diftindly are ; what place they hold in the 
general arrangementof natural bodies, and by what difiindiveCharaders they 
claim that feparate department ; of what fubfiance they are compofcd, and 
what is their internal ftrudure j what portion or degree of Life it is which 
they enjoy : and laftly, what thofe exterior parts are, and whence dedu- 
ced, 
