38 VEGETABLE SjTRUCTURE, 
ced, on which thefe artificial fyfiems have been, and on which a natural 
method may be efiablifhed. 
With this knowledge of the fuhjedl in general, and of its particular 
divifions, vve may be able to judge how much is natural in every fyfiem, 
and how much imaginary ; what is the true advance each author has made j 
and how far his difcoveries or conceptions may be aflifiant in the point de- 
lired. The Vegetable Ccnftrudtion, and the dependant Life of Plants, 
will be the fubjedts of the prefent Book. This is properly the Philofophy 
of Plants, extending to all ranks and orders of the Vegetable Syftem. The 
exterior parts vary in different fubjedts ; but yet they are in all an efiablifla- 
ed, and that a very limited number. Thefe will be the fubjedts of the 
I'ucceeding divifion : and as all Syftems are efiablifhed upon thefe j and all 
arrangements, and all difiindtions of them, from Clafs to Species, have 
their foundation in the difference of thofe parts ; when they are explained, 
and not before, the Difiindtions, Charadters, and Names in Botany may.be 
underficod. 
CHAP. I. 
The Place of Vegetables in the System of Nature. 
EGETABLES, the knowledge of which is Botany, hold a middle 
^ rank in the great orders of the Creation. Natural bodies are arranged 
into three clafies, difiinguifhed eafily, and utterly difiindt from one ano- 
ther : thefe vve call Minerals, Vegetables, and Animals. The ge- 
neral fludy of all is Natural Philosophy ; and the particular detail 
conftitutes Natural History. Botany regards only the Vegetable 
Clafs ; but it comprehends fo far, both dodtrines ; extending to the Philo- 
fophy as well as the Hifiory of Plants. 
To enter properly upon the ftudy, we are firfi to afcertain its objedls, in 
difiindlion from thofe of the other two great Claffes. The out-lines of 
the difiindlion are thefe. Minerals have increafc without life, organized parts, 
regular growth, or fenfation ; Vegetables have a regular growth, and a de- 
gree of life, but no fenfation ; Animals grow, live, and feel. Minerals 
have no veffels ; Vegetables have veffels for their nutritive juices ; Animals 
have nutritive veffels and nerves ; thefe lafi are a peculiar and difiindl fy- 
fiem. On this confirudlion depends the eflential, univerfal, and invariable 
difference of the three great claffes of material beings. Minerals wanting 
veffels, tho’ they may be increafcd by an addition of parts, cannot have a 
regular 
