78 
REVIEW, 
PART II. 
REVIEWS AND EXTRACTS, 
REVIEW. 
ILLUSTRATION OF VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY, 
Practically applied to the Cultivation of the Garden, the Field, and the Forest, 
CONSISTING OF ORIGINAL OBSERVATIONS COLLECTED DURING 
AN EXPERIENCE OF FIFTY YEARS. 
BY ,TAS. MAIN, A. L. S, 
12 mo .—328 Pages.—Price 8.s .—Bound in Cloth. 
From the well known abilities of Mr. Main, we anticipated on the 
first announcement of this work, that the public would be furnished 
with a mass of useful and interesting knowledge. We were satisfied 
that so close an observer of nature could not have been practically 
engaged for fifty years, without making a multitude of important ob¬ 
servations. This anticipation has not been disappointed, for on 
carefully looking over the pages of his work, we have been much 
pleased with the many pithy remarks and judicious directions therein 
contained. The author commences with the “ Elements and struc¬ 
ture of vegetation,” and proceeds to shew the “ organization of plants,” 
and the nature of “ vegetable life.” He then enters more minutely 
into the subject, explaining the distinctions of vegetables, as the 
“structure, manner of growth,” &c. of monocotyledonous plants. 
The reproductive property, constitutional character, special habit, 
&c. of the various divisions or orders of dicotyledonous plants. Then 
follow the minutiae of “organization,” as the structure of the seeds, 
root, collet, stem, pith, wood, bark, pendulous stems, climbing stems, 
creeping stems, progressive growth, circulation of the sap, seat of 
vegetable life, origin of buds, and appendages of the stems of plants. 
Under the “ seat of vegetable life,” the author gives some peculiar 
ideas of his own, respecting the life being a distinct member of the 
plant, which is always found between the wood and the liber. As 
this is to us an entirely new theory, we subjoin an extract to shew 
the author’s views on the subject, that our physiological friends may 
judge for themselves. 
