VEGETABLE S T.R U C T U R E. 
97 
These obfervatlons, joined to what we have jufi: feen of the Inner 
fi;ru>ftare of tlie fubihanccs, will teach us what parts are eflential to the Ve- 
getable Sydem, and what only accidental ; wliat abfolute ; and what mere- 
ly temporary. We fhall thus didinguifli the importance of the feveral 
partSj and be led forward regularly in the courfe of our g-eat enquiry. 
C LI A P. xxvir. 
of the LIFE of PLANTS. 
T> Y Life in Plants, we mean that power whereby they grow : receiving 
nourifliment, and advancing from the minute and tender date wherein 
they lay within the Seed, to heighth and ftrength ; extending and difclof- 
ing regularly their feveral parts ; and in the end forming new Seeds for a 
fucceeding race. This power all Vegetables plainly have 5 nor are their 
indances of life limited to thefe alone : for fome have motion in their fe- 
veral parts, the Sleeping and Senlitive Plants in their Leaves and Footdalks, 
and mod of the Syngenefious Tribe in their Flowers. 
The Seat of Life 1 apprehend to be in that part I have called the Flesh 
of the Plant j and its powers to arife from a motion in the Juices of that 
part. This motion feems to be peculiar to its Juices, and not to have place 
in thofe of any other part of the Plant; it appears alfo by its feveral dates 
and degrees, to give Health, Vigour, Sicknels or Decay, to the entire Ve- 
getable. 
That this fubdance, the Fledi of Plants, is the feat of their Life, ap- 
pears from thefe certain obfervatlons : that no Plant is deditute of it, tho’ 
occadonally one or other of the feveral other parts are wanting ; and that 
when this part is dedroyed, the Plants inevitably dies : whereas, while it 
remains, there is always life ; and there refides in it a power of producing, 
by the mere motion of its Juices, all the others. This we evidently fee 
in Seeds, whofe Corculum is no other than a regular piece of this fubdance ; 
and tho’ lefs obvioudy, yet not lefs certainly, in the growth of Cuttings. 
There is no date wherein the Velfels of this part are deditute of their 
proper Juices : thefe require moidure, to make them able to dow in the 
Veffels, and heat to put them into motion. When they want thefe they 
coagulate in the Velfels ; but they retain a long time the original power of 
being put in motion by thofe alfidances. It is for this reafon the heart of 
VoL. I. O the 
