VEGETABLE STP>.UCTURE. 
185 
From the upper part of the Stalk, in fome Plants, there rife alfo a 
kind of thin fubltances of the nature of the former, but accompanying the 
Flowers, as thofe attend the Leaves : the Latin term for thefe is Br ACTEiE j 
vve may call them Floral Leaves or Scales. 
Tendrills are another appendage of the Stalks of certain Plants. Thefe 
are fine flender tvvirted Filameirts, which tye the Plant, as it were, to 
fome adjoining lubfiance. Tliey generally are found upon thole Plants 
which have Stems too weak to fupport themfelves, and yet too pAm for 
twifiing round Trees, or other bodies. 
Finally, among the adjunds of the Stalk are to be named thofe 
Glands which, in fome Plants, are large and obvious. Thefe are of 
various form, but they have only one office, which is to feparate and dif- 
charge the redundance of that nourifliment which has been fent to the part 
where they are placed. Thefe grow fometimes on the main Stalk of the 
Plant, fometi.mes on the Footfialk of the Leaf, and in Lme Plants on the 
Leaves themfelves. 
If to thefe parts we add the Buds of Trees, and of Perennial Plants, 
we have all that the new Botany has adopted as difiindive parts, on this 
foundation. Thefe Buds are fo many fmall Proccfi'es of the Flefli of the 
Plant ; formed, as has been flaewn in the afcendant Shoot of the Helle- 
bore Root, and in the Buds of the Anemone j covered with Films and 
Scales, or with imperfed Rudiments of Leaves, and ready, when the fea- 
fon calls, to grow out into entire Plants. 
The Flowers of Plants, are the termination of their growth, and 
the feats of a new progeny. They are ufuallv difiinguiflied by a gaudy 
colour ; but not always. There are four confpicuous parts of which they 
confift when perfed, but one or other of thefe is often wanting. The four 
natural and confpicuous parts are, a Cup, the Leaves of the Flower, which 
vve call Petals, the Filaments, with their Anthcrae or Buttons, and the 
Rudiments of the Seeds, naked or under cover of a Fruit or Seed-Vefiel. 
Befide thefe three are two other parts of a Flower lefs regarded ; thefe 
are i. a fmall head crowning the Stalk, and giving rife to the Petals or 
the Filaments, and called the Receptacle ; 2. a thick Ring furrounding 
the bafe of this Receptacle, or placed near it, fometimes rifing into pecu- 
liar bodies called Nedaria. 
These are all the parts which we find in the mofi; perfed Flowers; 
but in many kinds fome of them are wanting: only the Filaments or An- 
therae are found in all. Thefe are efiential to the Flower, becaufe they 
contain thofe Rudiments of new Plants for the defence and fupport of which 
VoL. I. B b the 
