.94 
VEGETABLE STRUCT U-R E. 
C H A P. XXVI. 
Of the PITH. 
VERY tlfmg being now cleared off from the macerated Plant, there 
remains only the Pith ; a fubftance which has been thought very im- 
portant, but which a more critical enquiry robs, in a great meafure, of 
that charader. Its difpcfition and courfe in the entire Plant, is reprefented 
in Plate VIII. Fig. 98. 
Whatever perfed part of the Plant we cut, we fee this: it always 
occupies the center ; but it no where reaches the extremity of the part 
wherein it lies. In the Fibres it is a column, which goes very gradually 
diminifliing from the larger to the fmaller end, a a. But it neither reaches 
the body of the root, nor the extremity of the Fibre. We have fliewn how 
it lies in the head which makes the end of the Fibre ; at the part near the 
body of the Root it is terminated in the fame manner : the Vafcular Series 
and Flefhy Subllance in each of thofe parts furround it. 
In the Body of the Root there is another column of Pith, h by if it 
may be fo called ; but this is very irregular at the fides ; and this is in 
the fame way terminated by the arch which the Flefliy SubRance makes 
at the bafe and crown, and by the Vafcular Series. This Pith of the bo- 
dy of the Root has no connedion whatever with that in the Fibres. 
In the FootRalks of Leaves there is no Pith. The Leaves are not per- 
fed parts, but affiftant organs. 
In the Flowerftalk it forms another column, ccj largeft at the bafe, 
and fmalleft at the neck, where it is pinched in at the origin of the Flower, 
and there is again finally terminated. But tracing the Plant up into the Re- 
ceptacle, we fee there another column of it, d d, fhort> and in form of a 
cone, with a broad bafe running fuddenly to a point. This has no more 
communication with the Pith of the Stalk than that has with that of the 
Root. All the Parts of the Plant have a Pith ; but it is detached in each : 
and, therefore, in reprefenting that of the entire Plant, wc mufl place it 
in order, in four disjointed pieces. The termination of the uppermofl; of 
all isjull under the arch made by the Clufters of Veffels at the fummit of 
the Receptacle. 
Having feen its courfe and place, we are next to confider its con- 
Rrudion, 
It 
