PLANT. 607 
u What then, you will afk, is this perfec.lly-new prin¬ 
ciple, that is to embrace the two particular orders already 
eftablifhed in the corolla and ftamen ? It is extremely 
Ample, and I {hail now briefly explain it. 
“ We eafily diftinguifh in plants five principal organs-; 
Which are, the roots, ftems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. 
Nature has diftributed them differently in vegetables. 
Some do not {how the leafl appearance of fruit, others 
have no apparent flowers; this is entirely bare of leaves, 
that is deprived of a ftem. Finally, in the agaric and 
truffle the eye has never yet difcovered either fruit, flower, 
leaves, ftem, or even roots. Reafon forbids plants fo 
differently conftituted to be confounded in the fameclafs: 
{he requires that they ftiould have a rank conformable to 
their degree of perfeftion; and it is precifely the order 
that Nature has followed in their organization. To be 
convinced of this, let us examine the vegetables which 
poffefs the five organs, and let us confider in them the 
flower, which is the principal one. 
“In the flotver it is eafy to diftinguifh four effential 
parts, the calyx and the corolla (or the coverings), and 
the ftamenand the piftil (or the generative organs). The 
flower which is compofed of a multitude of corollas, occu¬ 
pies the firft rank: it is called a compound flower. That 
which has only a corolla, but formed of feveral pieces, oc¬ 
cupies the fecond rank: this is the polypetalous flower. 
That in which the corolla is formed of a Angle piece, oc¬ 
cupies the third rank : it is the monopetalons flower. That 
which exhibits only a corolla without a calyx, or a calyx 
without a corolla, defeends to the fourth rank, and is a 
perigonous flower. Finally, that which has no covering, 
and leaves the ftem and piftil without any defence, is a 
naked flower. Its place is in the fifth rank, the molt bare 
of all. 
“It would be abfurd to deviate, in any method, from 
an order fo clear and eftablilhed by Nature; and the more 
fo, as, by conforming to it, we behold, in the fuite of 
thefe primitive relations, the whole feries of fubfidiary 
relations, which it would be impoffible to clafs by any 
other means. Having, therefore, thus feparated the 
compound, polypetalous, monopetalous, perigonous, and 
naked, flowers, we behold as many diftinft tribes form 
tlmmfelves in each of thefe divifions as Linnaeus has efta- 
blifhed claffes; the firft according to the number of (la¬ 
mina, the latter according to the diftance of the ftamina 
from the piftil. 
“ But this is not all: to the organic perfeflion of the 
ftamen fucceeds the organic perfedlion of the corolla; 
and we fee fpring, all of a fudden, from each tribe, not 
only the different families which Tournefort fo judi- 
cioufly formed, but, moreover, all the families which he 
had not time to arrange, and which depend on his prin¬ 
ciple. Nature, befides, has decreed that each family 
fhould be compofed of a certain number of genera, and it 
is by the perfeflion of the fruit that he has chofen to dif- 
tinguifli them'; be it called nut, berry, capfule, hulk, or 
pod, is of little confequence; the fame graduated order of 
perfection, inherent in one of its principal attributes, will 
always determine its place in the divifion of which it 
forms a part. Finally, the leaf itfelf, according to the 
richnefs of its forms, determines in the genus the place 
which belongs to each of its fpecies. 
“Thus the conftituent organs regulate the order in the 
general mafs. i. The floral coverings in the divifion. z. 
The ftamina in the tribe. 3. The petals in the family. 
4* The fruit in the genera. 5. And the leaf in the fpe¬ 
cies. 
“It is to be obferved in this diftribution, 1. That at 
each degree the new charafter, which becomes the rule of 
the order, eftablifhes it on its own modifications. 
“ z. That on the firft diftribution depends the fecond, 
on the fecond the third, and fo on : fo that each order is 
connected with the one that precedes it, as well as that 
which follows it; and that they enclofethemfelves fuc- 
•ceflively in each other, fo as to form one whole, which 
then takes and deferves the name of fyftem, becaufe, in 
fa 61 , all its parts perfeclly correfpond. 
“ 3. When Linnaeus was reproached with having dif- 
perfed through his claffes families of which the flowers 
were analogous, and with having brought together fami¬ 
lies the flowers of which were diflimilar, the reproach 
was juft: but in the new diftribution this defefl difap- 
pears; for each fucceffion of tribes is only compofed of 
the flowers of its divifion, all conftituted in the fame 
way by their coverings; and each fucceffion of families is 
only compofed, in its turn, of the flowers of its tribe, all 
conftituted, in the fame manner, by their ftamina; and, 
confequently, no heterogeneous character can alter this 
reciprocal concatenation, which is equally fatisfaflory 
both to the eye and the underftanding. 
“Laftly, the previous feparation of the five different 
organifations of flowers has the advantage of bringing 
back Linnaeus himfelf to his own conception, from 
which he arbitrarily deviated, when he formed the thir¬ 
teenth, fourteenth, and nineteenth, claffes of his fyftem, 
which are only difmemberments, now ufelefs, of the 
fourth tribe of the monopetalous, of the fifth of the 
compound, and of the fixth of the polypetalous, flowers. 
“Thus, in this new plan, all confufion difappears. We 
follow with the fame glance the two luminous traces of 
the founder of botany, and of his illuftrious continuator: 
for it is no longer allowable to confider thefe two fupe- 
rior men as rivals, wliofe doftrines exclude each other, 
and who have only fucceeded in dazzling us by two inge¬ 
nious but inexa6l methods. On the contrary, by the 
analyfis which one offers us of the modifications of the 
corolla, and the other of the modifications of the ftamen, 
they embraced, under two general afpedts, all the richeft 
portion of the vegetable fyftem ; of which the flower is 
the principal organ. So that it will be henceforward 
fufficient for the botanical profeffor to exprefs the double 
relation of perfedlion which exifts between the two effen¬ 
tial parts of the flower, in order to determine the family 
of each plant; as it is fufficient for the geographer, when, 
he wifhes to determine any particular fpot on the earth, 
to exprefs its double diftance from the meridian and the 
equator. And, with refpedl to vegetables, this is not one 
of thofe illufory relations which betray the radical defedl 
of a fyftem, by exceptions, ambiguities, and omif- 
fions; it is a primitive law, from which we fee, as it were, 
defeend all the fubfequent laws of a regular, abfolute, 
and univerfal, order. In this (ketch of twelve pages, I 
have eftablilhed the demonftration of it by a methodical 
table of 341 genera, which comprife 6000 fpecies, con¬ 
tained in the fingle divifion of the polypetalous flowers; 
which forms about the fifth of the vegetables ; and which, 
being furniflied with all their organs, are fubje6l to the 
fame law.” 
To PLANT, v. a. To put into the ground in order to 
grow; to fet; to cultivate.— Plant not thee a grove of 
any trees near unto the altar of the Lord. Dent. xvi. 21. 
—To procreate; to generate.—It engenders choler, it 
planteth ar.ger. Shahefpearc. 
The honour’d gods the chairs of juftice 
Supply with worthy men, plant love amongft you. 
ShakeJ'peare. 
To place; to fix.—I will advife you where to plant your- 
felves. Milton’s P. L. 
When Turnus had affembled all his powers, 
His ftandard planted on Laurentum’s towers ; 
Trembling with rage, the Latian youth prepare. Dryden. 
To fettle; to eftablifh; as, to plant a colony.— Create, 
and therein plant a generation- Milton. —To the planting 
of it in a nation, the foil may be mellowed with the 
blood of the inhabitants; nay, the old extirpated, and 
the new colonies planted. Decay of Chr. Piety. —To fill 
or adorn with fomething planted : as, He planted the gar¬ 
den, or the country.—Whether to plant a walk in undu¬ 
lating 
