130 
VEGETABLE STRUCTURE, 
Flower j and we fhall find this route very fiiort and fimple in fome Plants^ 
and long and complex in others : it is therefore we are to feledt the difiind; 
kinds. We fliall begin with the Colchicum, which confifis only of a 
Root and Flower. In this therefore the courfe of the Ju’ces is fiiortell: 
and firnplefi; of all : from this we lhall advance to the fame enquiry in the 
Winter Aconite, which has a Flow'er-Stem between the Root and Flower, 
tho’ no proper Stalk ; the next advance will be to the Anemone, which 
has a proper Stalk, with a peculiar Leaf ^ and from this the courfe wdll 
be eafy to all the reft. 
CHAP. XXXV. 
Of the Common Colchicum. 
T he common Colchicum, in its ftate of perfedt growth, confifts only 
of two parts, the Root and Flower j the Flow'er being fixed on the 
Root, without any intermediate Stalk ; and no Leaves rifing with it. See 
Plate X. Fig. I. 
All Plants we have feen confift of the fame conftituent fubftances, 
Bark, Rind, Blea, Flefii, and the like ; and thefe equally have place in the 
minuteft Ffibres of a Root, and in the Stem. Here being no Stem, we 
ftiall have an eafy opportunity to fee what thefe fubftances are, and what 
becomes of them. The fyftem of folid Bulbs will be alfo difeovered in 
this examination ; for no Plant is more truly of the folid bulbous kind 
than Colchicum. 
A PLANT of this kind, taken entire out of the ground in Autumn, 
w'hen it is in full Flower, appears thus. An oval, but fomew’hat irregular, 
bulb, lengthened into a neck at the top, and in the fame manner lengthen- 
ed on one fide at the bottom, is the moft confiderable part. This is cover- 
ed with a thick brown Skin, and, from two diftindl parts, it fends out 
Fibres ; a large duller from each. One of thefe clufters proceeds from 
the lengthened end, a ; and the other from the oppofite fide of the Bulb, 
b, where It feems naturally to have terminated. From the neck at the top 
of the Bulb, burfis out the tube of the Flower. Superficial Writers have 
called it a Stalk ; but it is in reality the body of the Flower itfelf, not yet 
divided into fegments. At a fmall height above the ground, it is divided 
into fix of thefe, and opens into a large F'lowcr j which has no Cup : 
the 
