88 
VEGETABLE STRUCTURE. 
It is, indeed, the only part wherein is immediate Growth, and is it- 
felf capable of producing all the others. It will live alone: but all the 
others cannot live without it. It will produce them all : but none of them 
can produce it. If the Pith be fcooped away in one Plant, and the Coats 
taken off in certain parts of others, this Fleffy Subftance will fhcot a new 
Pith inward, in the one cafe, and new Coats, even all of them, in the 
other : but if ever fo fmall a portion of this be taken away, it never is 
reftored. 
It is univerfal in the Plant, whereas others terminate in particular places ; 
and it produces all the red. The Filaments in the Flow'er, which are the 
effential part in the produdlion of new Plants, are continuations of it : and 
as the Seed Veffels are portions of the Pith which it (hoots inward, fo 
are the Petals and Nedaria of the Rind, Blea, and the Vafcular Series, 
which this part fends outward. 
It covers the Pith every where, and returns upon itfelf in feveral places: 
for tho’ it is found in every part of the Plant, it is not entire every W'here. 
The Root, we fee, has a regular cafe of it, independant of the Stalk : 
and it is a part of the furface of this cafe only which rlfes occafionally, as 
the fcafons call it, into the Stalks, Thcfe have a ccnncded portion of it 
during their vigour j but in the Body and Fibres of the Root it exifts per- 
fed and independent of them : therefore the Root has Vegetative Life when 
no Stalk rifes from it ; poffeffing alfo the Flavour and the Virtues. 
Such is the importance of this part, that it properly conflitutes the 
charader of the Vegetable Sydem, didingyidiing that great arrangement 
of Beings from the two other kingdoms. Na.ure has impreffed indelible 
and invariable marks of this didindion, if men vvoidd have obferved them. 
The charaderidic of an Animal Body, we have Oiewn, is the having a 
lydem of Nerves; the charader of a Vegetable Body is, the having this 
Ficdiy Subdance : Senfation arilcs fronr the Nerves of Animals ; and growth 
from this part in Plants. Such is its importance ; let us trace now its druc- 
ture. 
It is the original Plantule in the Seed ; it fwells into the body of a 
Root when that Seed is fuwn, (hooting a Blea and two Rinds outwards, 
and a Pith inwa-ds. Thence it is continued in a new growth downward 
into Fibres, rounding their ends as an arch, and upwanls into a Stalk. 
But in the body of the Root it is entire : the Pith there is furrounded by 
a plain and regular Coat of it ; and tho’ the Stalks and Fibres rife from 
it, yet its whole fubdance Is not continued into them. 
Wherever 
