1448. The movement of the sap consists simply in an ascent and impulsion of its particles upon all sides, but without anycirculation. A circulation would only bepossible if the plant were an organism disengaged from the elements; but as the earth and air belong to its organization; it thus necessarily oscillates between both, and its movements also can only be oscillations of a similar intervening character.
1449. There are consequently no arteries and veins, and still less a heart in plants, as some have striven to make out.
1450. The vessels of plants are most properly to be compared with the lymphatic vessels of animals, the fluid or sap of which also tends from all parts towards one summit, namely, the lungs, while still at times retrogressive movements also seem to occur.
1451. The vegetable sap does not move in a straight line upwards, but in all directions, to the right and left, in a zigzag manner, and so on. This is proved by two incisions being made in a branch opposite to each other. The motion of the sap in the plant is more an impulsion of the sap toward all sides, with a predominance in the direction upwards, than a rapid current as in the blood. If we reflect that the motion of the sap when seen under the microscope and then magnified several hundred times, still only resembles a gentle rippling of small drops, it thus becomes clear that the true current or flow occurs only in a very tardy manner. Wherever therefore in the plant the process of differencialization may be brought into play, there the sap is impelled.
1452. Through the polarization of the sap the cells also become polar towards each other, and then even the cell-walls, whereby the cellular sap with its mucous granules is kept in constant motion. The theory of the motion of sap has not consequently been based upon the theory of capillary tubules; nor is heat alone the cause of its ascent; nor the empty space, which originates superiorly by evaporation; nor electricity in an inorganic sense.
1453. These functions correspond to those of the light,heat, and gravity in the corolla, pistil and seed. The corolla irradiates, the pistil gives out heat, the seed sinks like the earth towards the centre.
1.Function of the Corolla.
FERTILIZATION.
1454. As in the vegetable trunk the principle function has been the antagonism between the aerial and the terrestriaqueous plant, so must the same function be repeated in the corresponding organs of the blossom. It oscillates in the principal antagonism between the corolla and pistil, which is the antagonism of leaf and stem, that of electrism and chemism, of light and body, of spirit and matter.
1455. The pollen electrifies, animates, or inspirits the ovarium, by which means it becomes stimulated to the development of seeds. Without this animating influence the seed had not been developed.
1456. This relation, whereby through the balance of an antagonism, a whole organism has been evoked into life, is called thesexual relation.
1457. The sex is consequently the antagonism between spirit and matter, light and mass, æther and the terrestrial elements, sun and planet, between electrism and chemism, that has been represented in an organism as totality. In sex consequently the primary antagonism of the world, or that of spirit and matter, centre and periphery, has been organically represented.
1458. The sex has hence from the beginning been established and prophesied; manifests itself also under diverse forms in the Organic, but becomes first individualized in an organic body. This is the lofty sense or signification of the sexual relation, that in it the Spiritual and Material pair together, and thereby sprout forth or germinate into a whole world. In sex the mystery of creation lies concealed.
1459. What is producing the fruit is called thefemale, that which awakes production, themale.
1460. Mascularity is the spirit of the world, feminality the matter which becomes animated by the former; mascularity is the light of the word, which illuminates the feminality, and it is pregnant; mascularity is the electricity of the world, which arouses the female chemism unto galvanic circulation. By the male the female becomes animated; before this it is dead and devoid the differentialization, which is necessary to every action.
1461. Impregnation is a simple act of light upon the matter, anirradiation, as it was termed, with such an exalted appreciation of its significance, by the ancients. The male imparts nothing in impregnation but thesolar ray, orfluid nervous mass, in its semen, which awakes, animates, and inspirits the quiescent female. The female supplies or furnishes all the Material or, as in the plant, the fruit. In other respects it is not to be understood, as if no material whatever had been imparted by the male, but only that it is not the matter as such, which the male gives the female, that becomes fruit; but that the tension which resides in male semen, evokes at the same time, as by a process of contagion or fermentation, a similar tension in the female.
1462. The process of tension resides originally in the male, because he is related or akin to the light; but the female first obtains the light through the male.
1463. Impregnation is an excitation by the electrical, of the slumbering chemical, process. The pregnancy is consequently an uninterrupted chemical process.
1464. The female is the first and lies deeper in the developmental history of the planet (but not in the creation), just as the digestive process is prior or antecedent to the respiratory.
1465. In the truest sense is feminality co-ordinated with the digestive, the mascularity with the respiratory, system. The female is (organically considered) abdomen, the male, thorax. Pregnancy is a sexual process of digestion, impregnation a sexual process of respiration. In impregnation the female respires the male, whereby it receives into itself a thoracic function, becomes itself male, i. e. is then capable of producing something outof itself. Now, the female produces a fruit, which is synonymous with both principles.
1466. The semen is the fruit of the male. The male is always pregnant, and that indeed by virtue of his own power. This power is deficient in the female, which does not possess the light in itself, but only the elemental bodies that are ready and susceptible of form.
1467. The anthers are the male organs, the pollen is the semen. The pistils are the female organs, the seed-granules are properly speaking, thegerm.
1468. The pollen is a most highly differenced, electrical product; the seed-granule a wholly indifferent, and tranquil mucous mass. The pollen falls upon the stigma of the pistil, and irradiation has taken place; the material fruit-capsule gains thereby so much polarity, that saps enough ascend, in order to develop the germless seed-vesicles.
1469. It is quite unnecessary for the pollen, with its sap or gas, to be materially conveyed through the style to the seed. It is only requisite for the style to be excited, dualized, electrified, and then it has life enough of its own. But it does not follow, because it is unnecessary for the sap of the floral dust or pollen to reach the seed-granules, that it cannot or ought not to reach thereunto. In many plants the pollen-tube does actually reach there and penetrate through the micropyle. In many styles it is still held as impossible, for the pollen-tube to penetrate through them to the seeds. The pollen-sap indeed simply evokes on the apex of the seed (upon the summit of the lorical rib, through whose liberation the micropyle originates) the vital process, which, without this stimulus, would perish. Thereby a new cell is secreted, from whence the germ is developed.
IRRITABILITY—MOTION.
1470. In impregnation the heaven is married to the earth; for then the spirit descends, and does not esteem itself too highly to become flesh. Impregnation is the highest immaterial action of the plant.
1471. If, therefore, the irritability of the plant at any time, or but once only, makes its appearance independently, it must be in the sexual organs, and in the moments of impregnation. Impregnation ensues, when the two mundane principles of the plant, light and matter, have attained, as corolla and fruit, to the highest pitch of perfection; then the tension of the spiral vessels ranks so high, that they exercise their function independently of what is terrestrial in the plant,movethemselves in the male filaments, touch the female organ, and die in this their highest effort.
1472. Thus has it only been conceded to the plant to be, in the instant of impregnation, an animal and enjoy animal passion.
2.Function of the Ovarium.
1473. The ovary, by its own power, is in a condition to draw towards it the chemical saps from out the stem, and as it were by its own heat to thrust new buds from its leaf-ribs, namely, the seed-pellicles or testæ. It has not, however, strength sufficient to put forth also the leaf-work, namely, the embryo, upon the apex of the seed-shell. It requires for this purpose the stimulus of the floral pollen. If the plant is very rich in sap, the ovary is so likewise, and converts itself into fruit or sarcocarp. As a rule, therefore, trees only bear a crop of fruit. If also the impregnation is less perfect, the force of the sap continues to remain inherent in the ovarian leaves; they become rich in sap, fleshy, and likewise fruity in character; trees, therefore, with imperfect or separated blossoms, as the Amentaceæ, Urticaceæ, Euphorbiaceæ, Papilionaceæ, Terebinthaceæ, and Rosaceæ, usually bring forth a crop of fruit.
1474. A stronger degree of refinement appears in these fruit-saps than in the saps of the stem, because corolla and seeds range closer to each other. They are therefore more varied and richer in substance. The fruit-substances range usually upon the side of the water or the salts, while those of the seed range upon the side ofthe earth or the Inflammables. The substances of the seed are flour and oil, those of the fruit sugar and acids; the former supplies food, the latter drink.
1475. Seed and ovary stand therefore in antagonism, like earth and water.
3.Function of the Seed.
GERMINATION.
1476. The seed is the plant contracted upon its centre, it is the heavy mineral mass, which can only undergo changes by the operation of the other elements, like as it arrived only at completion by the operation of the floral pollen. This acts upon it when within the dry ovary, like the water and oxygen in the dry earth. These changes are its development or germination.
1477. All the planetary elements belong to germination, and to growth the Cosmical also with all its actions. To germination belongs earth, water, and air; to growth, light, heat, and gravity; with all the four mineral classes also, such as earth, salt, Inflammable, and metal. The plant contains silicious and calcareous earth, salts, coal with sulphur, and lastly, iron.
1478. Germination is the disjunctive emergence wrought by means of moisture, heat and oxydation in the processes of decomposition and fermentation. No seed germinates in irrespirable kinds of air.
1479. The cotyledons or seed-lobes are the synthesis of the two processes; they are at once root and leaf, therefore resolvable into mucus, and may yet become green.
1480. In germination the elemental bodies of the root-and stalk-polarity directly emerge; the mucus or the flour separates into alcaline gum, that seeks the darkness, and into acid sugar, which elevates itself into the illuminated air.
GROWTH.
1481. Growth is none other than continued germination. The sap being polarized by the air becomes ofnecessity decomposed. One part evaporates as carbonic acid and water, the other coagulates into oxydized mucus or into cell-walls.
1482. Growth proceeds directly from the process of digestion and respiration, while its polar organs constantly remove further from each other.
1483. Properly speaking the digestive and respiratory processes are none other than growth, since both separate from each other. That, which originates between them, is the process of nutrition, the vascular system.
1484. Growth oscillates between the process of decomposition and that of fermentation; it is an uninterrupted fermentation.
FALL OF THE LEAF.
1485. If every pole of the plant has been perfected in an isolated manner, it has thus become identical with the air, and the aerial process ceases.
1486. With the cessation of the aerial process, the respiratory organ must also die off or perish.
1487. The decadence, or falling off, of the leaves is the result of the tension having been abrogated between them and the stem; it is a death by suffocation.
1488. The fall of the leaf therefore occurs in the autumn, or after the fruit is matured.
DURATION OF LIFE.
1489. The age of a plant is included between the the limits of the sap's impulse, and that which has been called its fall or descent.
1490. The actual fall of the sap is the death of the plant.
1491. If with the cessation of the influence of light, the polarity ceases entirely in the plant; it is then one year old or anannual. Every part of it dies off.
1492. In biennial plants the aerial polarity indeed disappears, but the polarity of the root remains. Flower, leaf, and stalk die.
1493. Perennial plants, also, do not entirely lose thestem-polarity, but only while they develop a new plant about the old. Flower and leaf only perish, while the water-and earth-organs remain alive.
1494. The old liber dies with every maturation of the fruit, because there the difference attains solution. But a new life develops itself in the parenchyma of the plant, and forms new liber or, properly speaking, a new plant about the old.
1495. Persistent plants consist of numerous plants, which gradually grow round about each other.
1496. In accordance with the idea of the plant, each one perishes with the maturation of the fruit.
1497. On account of the addition of the new plant about the old, the plant has also been confined to no definite magnitude and to no definite number in its mode of ramification.
1498. Indefiniteness in form, size and number, is the character of the plant, although a law lies at the basis of all this. The animal has a definite size, because several animals do not grow around each other.
1499. Hitherto the organs of the plant have been considered in a general point of view or as to their idea in time; to this now follows the development of the plant in a special sense, or its representation in space.
1500. The vegetable tissues, systems, and organs have only by degrees been disengaged from each other and independently perfected. The independent or self-substantial development of the organs constitutes definite orindividualplants.
1501. A plant, in which all the organs are present, separately or self-substantially developed and yet combined, is without doubt the highest in point of rank.
1502. Before it attains to this separation, nature can only produce lower forms, in which fewer organs have attained to independence. These forms constitute the diversity of plants and their plurality, for nature establishes every principal form as a finished organization.
1503. There are as many plants different from each other as there are organs, namely, tissues, anatomical systems and members.
1504. The sum of all plants is called the vegetable kingdom;this is the self-substantial representation of all vegetable organs. (Ed. 1st, 1810, p. 123.)
1505. The vegetable kingdom is consequently the expression of the vegetable idea, or of the perfect plant representedin the multiplicity of individuals; it is the plant disintegrated, or anatomised, by nature herself.
1506. Were we therefore acquainted with all vegetable organs, we should know their rank and developmental series; and thus also recognize the character, rank, and developmental series of the plants themselves, or their divisions. There can be no doubt that the lowest organs, e. g. the tissues, have been first developed and independently perfected as plants; later on they separate into anatomical systems and finally into members, whereby perfect plants must originate.The division or classification of the vegetable kingdom is consequently that of the vegetable organs.The Systematic of plants is a copy of that of their organs, or a plastic representation of the philosophical vegetable anatomy. With this every thing has been granted, which is requisite for the building or erection of the vegetable system. All principles, together with the methods, rest in the proposition that has been expressed.
1507. The artificial systems of plants are related to the vegetable kingdom, as the lexicon or dictionary is to language. Those systems which have hitherto been termed natural, but which should properly be calledmethodical, are related to the vegetable kingdom, as the ordinary grammar is to a language. The vegetable system must, however, be related to the vegetable kingdom, as the philosophical or genetic grammar is to language. This only agrees with the essence of the language, or isnatural. The vegetable system is necessarily a philosophical or genetic one, that alone being truly or legitimately natural. (This system was first propoundedby Oken, in the Ed. 1st of the Naturphilosophie, 1810; further developed inDietrich'sGarten Journal, 1813; carried out in his Naturgeschichte fur Schülen, 1821, and in his Lehrbuch der Nat. Gesch.Botanik. Weimar, 1825.) Theartificialsystem collects the materials for the edifice, but leaves them to lie without order and in confusion; themethodicalor what has been called the natural system separates these materials and arranges them in homogeneous groups; thegenetic, philosophical or truly natural, system, again mixes them amongst each other, but thereby actually erects the edifice. All three systems are therefore necessary and good, and no one of them merits being despised by the other; it is only when one of them imagines that it is the other, or can render the others unnecessary, that it trespasses from out its circle, and deserves reproach. Thus forFloras, whose ultimate object is to find out rapidly the names of plants upon botanical excursions, as also for the labelling of specimens in botanic gardens, the artificial system is the best; for the description, however, of foreign plants the methodical; but for insight into the whole vegetable world the philosophical or natural system. Would we compare Floras with each other, the latter system must certainly come into play; but then the matter to be dealt with is not about an excursion-book.
VEGETABLE SYSTEM.
1508. Taken in a strict sense all the diversity of vegetable structure of vegetables has reference first of all to the difference in the tissues; these being either unseparated, or separated, into special systems and members. At first the tissues lie confusedly, or without order, amongst themselves. They thenseparatein a concentric and tubular form into systems, that are encasedwithineach other, like the bark, liber, and wood, which form theshaft. Furthermore they separate into members, and appear oneabovethe other, as root, stalk, and foliage, which collectively may be called thestem; these arerepeated as seed, pistil, and corolla, which together are calledflower, and combined,fruit, namely, nut, plum, berry and apple. I designate by the termstockor trunk all the parts as far as the blossom; and this together with the fruit I name thyrsus. The vegetable stock, whose tissues have not yet separated into members, I style, from want of a better word,thallus. As we divide political kingdoms intoprovincesandcircles, so also may these titles be suitably applied here. It is evident, that the plants which simply consist of tissues and have as yet no sheaths and members, are theAcotyledones; those, however, provided with sheaths, but devoid of true roots, stalk, and foliage,Monocotyledones; those with true foliage or reticular-veined leaves are, on the contrary,Dicotyledones. The natural system of vegetables stands accordingly in the following manner.
A.—STOCK-PLANTS.
Province I.Histophyta, or Tissue-plants—Acotyledones.Class 1. Cell-plants.2. Duct-3. Trachea-II.Thecophyta, or Sheath-plants—Monocotyledones.4. Bark-plants.5. Liber-6. Wood-III.Arthrophyta, or Member-plants—Dicotyledones.Circle 1.Axis-plants—Tubulifloræ.7. Root-plants.8. Stalk-9. Leaf-
B.—BLOSSOM-PLANTS.
Circle 2.Flower-plants—Thalamopetalæ.10. Seed-plants.11. Ovarium-12. Corolla-Circle 3.Fruit-plants—Calycopetalæ.13. Nut-plants.14. Plum-15. Berry-16. Apple-
1509. A slight glance at the above table shows us the procedure of Nature. The higher she ascends, the more and more she separates, and thereby increases, the organs. There may therefore be plants which have only a single organ or tissue, as well as others, which possess all.
1510. There cannot, however, be any plant which could simply possess the higher without the lower organs. Higher organized plants are not such therefore, by virtue of their having some one organ more perfectly developed, or separated into several parts; but through this, that they actually possess several different organs. The higher grade of organization depends accordingly not upon the perfection of theSingular, but thenumberof theDifferent. The Perfected consists in themultiplicitycombined to constituteunity, but by no means in the simply homogeneous multitude of theparts. Numerous stamina may render acorollahigher, but not on that account the whole plant; many digits may make a hand nobler, but not on that account, the animal. But with many digits also that hand is nobler, in which the digits are dissimilar.
First Province.
HISTOPHYTA—ACOTYLEDONES.
Devoid of, or without true spiral-vessels, leaves, corollæ, and pistil.
The vegetable kingdom ascends, in accordance with the five main positions of the organs, by five stages; these are again separable into larger groups, which may be calledasexualandsexualplants.
1511. The tissues are a something internal, being, as it were, the viscera of plants or their parenchyma, which does not meet the light, and can therefore have no light-organs, which are developed only out of the foliage or leaves. The anatomical systems and organs are tissues that have become external, have attained to air and light, and are hence developed into air-and light-organs. Now, the light-organs are sexual organs. The Tissue-plantscan therefore have no sexual organs; and plants divide accordingly into asexual and sexual plants. The asexual are female plants, and are consequently the first or lowest. Thus there can be thus no sexual or male plants, without the female being found that belong to them.
1512. Male or androgynous plants are only possible, if spiral vessels or tracheæ be present. They first, however, originate when the tracheæ become external, or form a circle in the stalk, i. e. are accessible by light; as in the Mono-and Dicotyledones.
1513. The asexual plants are not cryptogamic, but agamic. They do not perform self-impregnation clandestinely, but not at all; for they do not attain light-difference, and consequently not male organs. Analogues of stamina may make their appearance in the mosses, but they invariably fail to attain the development of pollen. What have been called male parts in other cryptogamia, do not merit consideration. Such projections or prefigurations are besides to be found everywhere.
1514. The asexual plants are simply formations of the tissues, of the galvanic vesicle, and are thus of a female nature. They are nothing more than a great utricle full of small vesicles, which by desiccation subdivide intogerminal dustor sporules, each granule whereof attracts other mucous vesicles out of the moisture, in order to form again a large utricle.
1515. The asexuals cease in the process of vegetation, where the other plants begin. With the rupture of the gemmal-or bud-vesicle in the higher plants a new world for the first time emerges into view, such as stem, leaves, blossom, and then the ultimate bud ruptures for the first time as the pericarp, and scatters its higher organized germinal powder as true seeds.
1516. An asexual plant is one, which, without all the intermediate organs of the stem, at once represents the capsule or ovary. It consists only of the beginning and end of the plant.
1517. The higher plants differ from the lower by the interposition of new organs between the two terminal organs, namely, the primary vesicle and the true seed. It may be said, that the asexual plant is naught but seed, and that the seed of the higher plants is a fungus upon a leafy peduncle, a fungus more highly organized by light.
1518. The asexual plants have no true root, stalk, and leaf; they have not even a true bark, liber, and wood, in so far as these first make their appearance through separation. Tracheæ are first exhibited in the higher ferns, and then only as constituting a single string, which occupies the middle of the plant, and consequently forms no circle or zone.
1519. As again the true seed is a leaf-formation, and possesses therefore cotyledons or seed-lobes, such seeds must be wanting in the asexual plants; they are therefore Acotyledones. From the same cause, however, the germinal leaves or plumula must be also wanting; they are therefore germless, or anembryonic.
1520. The farinaceous or granular matter, lying next to the germ when within the shell of the true seeds, is called thealbumenor perisperm; the seeds of the asexual plants are therefore nothing else but albumen. They are therefore devoid of the funiculus or, what has been called, umbilical cord.
1521. The involucre, wherein, in true seeds, the germ and albumen are found, is the seed-coat or testa; consequently what has been called the capsule of the asexual plants (of mosses and ferns) corresponds simply to this spermoderm or seed-covering, and is no true ovarium. The capsules of mosses and ferns are therefore seeds full of albuminous dust.
1522. If any of these be regarded as a capsule, it can be thecalyptraof the mosses. This, too, is probably nothing else than the external testa; the proper capsule being its internal coat.
1523. Theindusiumof ferns incloses several capsulesas they have been called, or properly seeds, and might therefore, if considered alone, be compared with an ovarium, but it is probably none other than the covering corresponding to the perichœtium that surrounds the base of the setæ in mosses. The sorus is an accumulation of seeds with pulverulent albumen contained in a membranaceous covering, the indusium.
1524. The life of the asexual plants consists simply in the galvanic process. They are the primary organisms, planted in air.
1525. As being simply galvanic process, they would require but little light and air; they therefore seek the darkness, like the roots, and thrive also in a corrupt atmosphere, in caves, mines, cellars, and such like situations. They can from the same cause thrive only in moisture, in water, upon marshy meadow lands, after rain, copious dew, and so on.
1526. They are devoid the process of fermentation, as being that which is imparted by the oxydation of air, and they therefore yield neither sugar nor acids. They are simply the organized process of putrefaction; their ultimate product is therefore germinal powder, infusorial matter. Their remaining secretions are alkaline bodies; to which belong the pungent, fetid, and nauseous excretions, as the hydrogen gas and ammonia of the fungi, the mucus of the fuci, the carbonate of lime in the lichens, the cell-threads of the mosses, the fetid principle of ferns.
1527. Very few of these plants require the course of a summer in order to perfect or complete the vital course; a single ray of light of one day's, aye, of one hour's duration, is sufficient with most of them to evoke the feeble difference, to rouse the swell of the sap, and precipitate the infusorial powder.
1528. Automatic movements, as in the leaves and stamina of the higher plants, scarcely occur in them, or at most in the ferns, from their possessing spiral vessels. They divide, according to the tissues, into three classes, into Cell-, Vessel-, and Trachea-plants.
CLASS I.
Cell-plants—Fungi.
Here belong those plants which consist simply of cellular tissue, having no sap-tubes and tracheæ. Such plants, too, possess no regular or hexagonal cellular tissue.
1529. The cellular tissue, in which there is only a single active process, cannot essentially alter its primary form. It is therefore an accumulation of round or cylindrical mucus-vesicles.
1530. Mucus-vesicles, in which the air-process is not as yet active, cannot be coloured green; but must have the colour of the earth.
1531. Plants, composed of amorphous and earth-coloured cellular tissue, areFungi. The fungi are simply clusters of mucus-vesicles joined together in a more or less regular manner, their union being effected in dark, hollow and wet situations.
1532. They may therefore originate wherever mucous juices are evolved by the potential agency of a higher organization, and thus by putrefaction. The fungi originate byæquivocal generation. They are the anal-organizations of the higher plants and animals; the corrupted and luxuriating juices.
1533. Nevertheless the fungus is propagated by division of its vesicles, which again, in accordance with their peculiar laws of polarity, attract mucus-vesicles, and thus obtain the form of the earlier or parent fungus. This is only a more regulated kind ofæquivocal generation.
1534. The origin of the fungi may therefore happen in a twofold manner, namely, by formation from other juices, and by that of their own, which is called propagation. Still at bottom both are one in kind.
1535. Their granules or vesicles are seeds, properly sporules, which are self-developed without male polarization.
DIVISION.
1536. The fungi pass moreover through stages ofdevelopment, which range parallel to the vegetable classes; since it is impossible for any other organs to originate in them but such as belong to the idea of the plant. The lowest fungus can therefore change only, by endeavouring to develop in itself ducts, tracheæ, roots, and such like parts.
1537. There are accordingly as many developmental stages of the fungi as there are vegetable classes. These divisions are calledfamilies.
1538. The vegetable families range parallel to the classes. This law must hold good of all the classes. There are therefore in each class 16 families. An association of families upon each stage may be called an order.
1539. At first the fungus is none other than a mucus-vesicle or a small cluster of vesicles, e. g. anuredoormildew. Such a vesicle next becomes longitudinally extended, and includes within itself other vesicles or granules, e. g.mould. These mould-filaments or threads unite again so as to form a common mass, which is surrounded by an external membrane, and is then calledpuff-ball. The pulverulent granules, which were irregularly accumulated in the puff-balls, unite at length in a regular manner to constitute a trunk of varied form, as in theascomycetes, e. g.sphæriæ. Finally, the mould-filaments with their sporules are regularly collected together in an investing membrane, which, like a puff-ball, is supported upon a stipes or stem, e. g. the sarcomycetes oragarics. There are therefore 5 developmental stages of the fungi, which correspond to those of the classes; viz. the parenchyma, shaft, stem, flower, and fruit; and constitute orders.
1540. Each order is resolvable again into three divisions or families, which correspond to the organs. Thus there are in each class 16 tribes or families, which obviously range parallel to the vegetable organs or classes. (Vid. Tab. B.)
1541. A tribe or family is consequently the representation of a vegetable organ within a class.
1542. The genera obey the same law; for essentialdifferences are only conceivable through the presence of different organs.
1543. Species is in the animal kingdom that which copulates without necessity and compulsion. The same definition is applicable to plants. The species range, without doubt, according to the diversities in the individual organs themselves, which admit of a great multitude of combinations, the number of which is not as yet to be determined.
1544. The component parts of the fungi are either perfectly indifferent, mucous or gelatinoid matter; or they are of an alcaline nature, being acrid, poisonous, and such like. Their odour is usually dead, disagreeable, and loathsome, or analogous to their essential process of decomposition.
CLASS II.
Vessel-or Duct-plants—Mosses.
1545. The intercellular passages or succigerent vessels of plants make their first appearance in a state of perfection, when, the cells being extended lengthways, have become hexagonal and are placed in regular juxtaposition. In these plants therefore we meet with regular cellular tissue, but still without spiral vessels or tracheæ.
1546. As the vessels or ducts constitute the fundamental tissue of the liber, while this is the principal system of the stalk; so now does the stem begin to be manifested and separated from the fruit. The seeds are no longer therefore distributed in the present class throughout the whole trunk, but developed in a special involucrum or theca, which corresponds to the puff-ball, or to the pileus of the higher organized fungi.
1547. Plants with vessels, and consequently a cauliform formation, have at once also the commencement of a bark, and next the green colour. The vascular are the first green plants, and differ chiefly through that character from the fungi. They are theFucacæorSea-wracks.
1548. They have the colour of the water, because thecourse of the sap corresponds to the aqueous process; they are aquatic, just as the brown fungi are terrestrial, plants. Their component parts are aqueous, indifferent, mucous, and filose. Their habitation is the water itself or bogs. If they occupy dry situations, they live only when it rains.
1549. They likewise pass through the five stages of vegetation, and form therefore five orders.
1550. Order 1. The lowest orTissue-mosses, corresponding to the Uredines; are again naught but cells or mucous pellicles, but, from growing in water, and being consequently exposed to light and a stronger oxydation, they are green—Tremellini.
1551. They multiply by subdivision, since new vesicles or granules are developed in their interior, which become separated, and subsist or continue to grow for themselves. They therefore originate also by æquivocal generation, but by such an one as constantly occurs in water and light.
1552. The second order, or theVascular mossescorresponds to the sheaths, or to the Hyphomycetes. They are long filaments replete with granules, growing in water, and therefore green—Confervaceæ. These plants begin to ramify, and either increase by this means or by effusion of granular matter.
1553. The third order, that of theTracheal mosses, corresponds to the stem, or to the Gasteromycetes. A membranous trunk originates in water, which in certain places secretes the seeds in special vesicles or cysts—Fucalesor connate Confervæ. The fuci have at once the form of a stalk with root and leaves, because they correspond to these three organs of the axis.
1554. The fourth order, theFloral mosses, endeavours to obtain theblossom, and therefore elevates itself out of the water, but loses on that account the trunk-like character, and exhibits for the most part only membranous expansions, upon which seeds are secreted, which being usually of a beautiful colour, thus assume the appearance of corollæ—Lichenales. The lichens arefuci in dry situations. They correspond to the Pyrenomycetes or Sphæriaceæ.
1555. As the variegated colours appear in the blossom, so do they also in the lichens; but here they are for the first time chemically developed, distributed throughout the whole substance, and concealed. Most lichens yield colouring matters.
1556. As the stem is, in accordance with their signification, wanting to the lichens, they thus require a foreign trunk for their nutrition. They are therefore developed for the most part upon other plants, and principally upon the bark.
1557. Lastly, the fifth order,Fruit-mosses, originates through the development of a self-substantialfruitupon a cauliform stem—theMossesproper.
1558. As these are the highest plants of this class, and those that directly precede the tracheal formation, so the bark already resolves itself into individual leaves, which are, however, still destitute of spiral vessels.
1559. What have been called the seeds or sporules are accumulated in a capsule-like fruit upon the summit of the stalk. This fruit corresponds to the pileated fungus, and therefore springs up in an opercular manner like the latter.
1560. But this capsule is only a spermoderm, which incloses albuminous granules that have no proper germ or seed-lobes; they are plants with seed-vessels or pyxidia, upon an open-leaved stalk.
1561. They divide likewise into sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)
CLASS III.
Trachea-plants—Ferns.
1562. At first a fascicle only of spiral vessels can originate, which is necessarily surrounded by cellular tissue, and therefore lies in the middle of the plant. Such plants are theFilicesor ferns.
1563. As the spiral vessels are the antetype of theleaves, so does the trunk here obtain the form of the leaf, without itself producing true leaves. For, in the ferns, the fruits lie upon the back of the apparent leaf, which can only be the trunk.
1564. The fruits, being further removed from the fungi, no longer spring up in an opercular, but in a valvular, manner like the higher capsules.
1565. Green plants with imperfect spiral vessels and blossoms, and also with naked seeds devoid of true capsules, belong to the class of Ferns.
1566. I therefore place in this class theConiferæor trees with acicular foliage, because they have no ovarium, but naked seeds; and besides these, some other plants, though doubtfully, on account of their very abortive blossoms, as the Naiadaceæ. There are therefore Tracheal plants without and with stamina. The first portray the stock or trunk, the second, the thyrsus or blossom; they live mostly in dry situations, and produce resins or fetid matters.
1567. First order.Parenchymatous ferns—Aquatic ferns.I here place the aquatic ferns, because, as water-plants, they occupy a lower situation, because they support the fruits upon a radical trunk, and finally, because these fruit-vesicles have two kinds of contents, all of which seems to remind us of the fuci and lichens; they correspond to the Tremellini.
1568. Second order.Sheath-ferns—Club-ferns.Here commence the land ferns, and those kinds indeed whose so-called capsules open in a valvular manner, just as in the liverworts; or almost after the fashion of a pyxidium by an orifice, somewhat as in the mosses; the trunk is provided with squamose leaves or lobes, e. g. Lycopodiaceæ and Osmundaceæ; they correspond to the Confervaceæ.
1569. Third order.Stem-ferns—Annular or Ring-ferns.Here we meet with phylloidal involuted capsules or seeds upon the back of a stem that is likewise leaf-like; e. g. the typical or true ferns.
1570. They have rudiments of roots and a stem, together with foliage, because they are the prototypes of these three organs.
1571. The ring of their capsules corresponds to the midrib of the leaf. In the preceding order the capsule was only an upsprung stalk; but it is here an upsprung and unfolded leaf, the prototype of the bud-development.
1572. The fern-capsules, namely, the true seeds, are an accumulation of leaf-buds at the extremity of the fascicle of spiral vessels. The indusium is the upraised epidermis, which opens in a spathose manner; it consequently stands in the signification perhaps of the floral spathe or involucrum. They correspond to the Fuci.
1573. Fourth order.Floral ferns—Fluviales.If the tracheal plants be exalted unto the flower, male organs cannot fail in at once beginning to develop. I place therefore in this order the Naiadaceæ with very arrested blossoms, and simply stamina without calyx and corolla. The spiral vessels are rather doubtful.
1574. Fifth order.Fruit ferns—Coniferæ.Tree with imperfectly-formed spiral vessels, stamina without corollæ, seeds without ovarium; thus agreeing with the Cryptogamia even to the stamina; they form likewise sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)
SEXUAL PLANTS.
1575. So soon as the three tissues separate completely from each other into bark, liber, and wood, while the tracheæ are arranged circularly into several clusters or groups, does the antagonism of these organs also make its appearance, and exhibit itself as sex in the floral organs.
1576. This separation can only be attained through the influence of the air and light, whereby the sexual organs are conditionated. These plants have therefore the several organs of the trunk and blossom.
1577. Anthers can be wanting to none of the following plants. Now, the anthers are leaf-buds; the leaf-formation must be therefore developed also in their antagonism, or in the seed. The leaves of the seed, however, are calledseed-lobes; consequently all seeds of sexual plants have seed-lobes or cotyledons.
1578. Now the perfect seed is the whole plant in miniature with root, stalk, and leaf. This formation is, however, only possible where there is a sex, or where the vegetable tissues have emerged self-substantially from each other.
1579. But the anthers are buds upon a floral rib; consequently all sexual plants must have a part of the blossom, which ranks in the signification of leaf, and thus either the calyx or, with this also, the corolla.
1580. All sexual plants must have a shaft or scape, in which its three parts, bark, liber, and wood, are to be distinguished; even so must the three parts of the stem, the root, stalk, and leaf, have the parts of the blossom which correspond to them, viz. seed, ovarium, and calyx or corolla.
1581. The sexual plants next divide into Stock-and Blossom-plants, the former of these parting into Shaft-and Stem-plants.
Second Province.
SHAFT-PLANTS—MONOCOTYLEDONES.
1582. In the Shaft-plants the invaginate character is predominant, the wood being surrounded by liber, and this by bark; they are therefore tubular in form—tubular plants.
1583. The cellular tissue preponderates in them, and the tracheal fascicles form therefore no closed circle, but are dispersed; scattered fasciculi cannot, however, ramify but only pursue a straight course and form streaks—striated plants.
1584. Ramification is wanting unto these plants, partly on account of their tubular form, partly on account of the smaller quantity of tracheal fascicles—aramose plants. A vegetable stem without branches is called shaft or scape; thus they areshaft-plants.
1585. The blossoms do not stand upon ramules, butupon the stem itself; thus, if ever ramification originates, it can first occur in the floral peduncles.
1586. As they are deficient in branches, so also are they in buds—agemmalorbudless plants.
1587. The tendency to produce branches forms nodes, which are only imperfect ramal zones—nodose plants.
1588. Where the formation of branches is wanting, the minor ramification of ribs must be also wanting in the leaves; they are parallel-ribbed.
1589. The leaf is only a ruptured and expanded tube or spathe, which surrounds the shaft—spathose plants.
1590. Where branches are wanting, there can be also no petiolated leaves; they have therefore only radical leaves, from the midst of which the shaft or scape sprouts forth, only as a floral-peduncle—radical-leaved plants.
1591. If all these leaves be still sheathed or encased within each other, they are called bulbs—bulbose plants.
1592. Since the corolla is the repetition of the leaves, so also must its structure resemble theirs—spathose corollæ.
1593. But as there are here only radical leaves, so also is the corolla only a radical leaf-corolla. In the blossom, however, the radical leaf has become spathe, the cauline leaf, calyx, the ramuscular leaf, corolla. Such blossoms consist therefore either of a spathe only, as in the Aroideæ, or of a calyx—calycine plants.
1594. The stamina originate from the calyx. In calycine flowers therefore all the stamina must range opposite to the corolla-petals. These plants have onlyopposite, noalternate stamina. It has been generally assumed that the Monocotyledones have no true corollæ, but only coloured calyces. Philosophy agrees with this opinion; but adds thereunto that the corollæ of the Monocotyledones may be also merely spathes or involucra.
1595. The separation of the bud-formation here takes place for the first time in the blossom, namely, in the stamina. The number of the floral parts must be limitedto three; for this is the first number, in which the leaf-ribs may divide. Corollæ, stamina, and capsules are ternary—trinity-plants.
1596. As the seed is only an undeveloped leaf-bud, so in it only can the number of the leaf be found. Since, however, the leaf does not ramify in the present group of plants, but is only a single spathose leaf; so also does the seed consist only of one such leaf or of one seed-lobe—Monocotyledones. The wheat-seed or grain is none other than a grass-leaf with a short spathe and very dense, highly farinaceous, lamellæ. In germinating a new leaf emerges from the short spathe; it is the germinal leaf.
1597. Thus plants having a tubular stem, and such kind of foliage, corollæ and seeds, are Monocotyledones.
1598. The chemical bodies are more diversified in these than in the remaining members of the vegetable kingdom. In the roots, as in the tubers of the Orchideæ we meet with distinct mucilage; in the bulbs with alkalies or acrid matter; and with sugar, as being a feeble conversion of the starch in the stalk. The mucilage of the root becomes, when repeated in the seed, flour. Oily matters or acids seldom occur, and fleshy fruits scarcely ever.
1599. The ovary is almost throughout this region of plants either a single spathose leaf or caryopsis; or three spathe-leaves are united together, which thus, as follicles or carpels, usually burst open upon the internal edge.
DIVISION.
1600. If we now proceed to survey the Monocotyledons, in the order just set before us, we shall recognize among them three typical groups, to which the others are allied; they are the Gramineæ, Liliaceæ, and Palmaceæ.
1601. The Grasses obviously rank the lowest as well in respect of their root, stalk, and foliage, as also of their stunted blossoms, ovarium, and seeds.
1602. To them succeed the Lilies, which have a well-marked root, a more perfect, though still always herbaceous, stalk, and a few spathoid, more numerouslyribbed leaves; lastly, their corollæ, ovaria, and seeds are perfect; but still they invariably have no genuine fruits.
1603. Finally, the Palms are elevated above all by their stem being rich in tracheæ and wooded, as also by the perfection of their fruit. Scientifically, the scapose or shaft-plants must also resolve themselves into three classes; into Bark-, Liber-, and Wood-plants.
CLASS IV.
Bark-plants—Gramineæ.
1604. In these plants the whole stalk must have assumed the form of the cortex or bark, and consequently be hollow—tubular, orculmaceous plants.
1605. A mere bark cannot ramify. But the tendency unto ramification is manifested as nodes—nodose plants.
1606. The leaf which still represents the bark, is only imperfectly slit up, and therefore still forms a tube. Such leaves are called tubular or spathe-leaves proper.
1607. Such tubular leaves being only half slit up can only shoot forth gradually from each other, and that indeed in such a manner that they stand actually by twos, encased in, or opposite to, each other.
1608. Since the blossom is, as it were, an impression, or copy of the leaves, so will it here also consist only of spathiform, involucral, or calycine leaves, and only of two, one of which, though opposite to, is surrounded by the other. Such floral parts are called glumes—glumaceous plants. If four glumes are present, then the external pair of them corresponds to the involucrum or spatha, the internal to the calyx.
1609. The corolla-petals are of necessity arrested in plants such as these, where no true leaf is as yet developed; frequently two only are left persistent as pellicles orlodiculæ.
1610. This is still more the case with the ovary and seed; in each only one leaf attains development, and the seed has entirely coalesced with the ovarium. This kind of fruit is calledcaryopsis.
1611. Nodose plants with hollow scape or shaft, tubular leaves, glumose blossoms, and cariopsidal fruits areGrasses.
DIVISION.
1612. The Bark-plants pass moreover, together with their subdivisions, through the five stages of vegetable organs, and they will therefore produce also a more perfect stalk, leaves, and flowers. The whole calyx will, however, never be coloured or corolla-like in its character. Cortical plants are thus herbaceous plants with hollow stalk, and with an arrested or green calyx, without sarcose or fleshy fruit.
1613. Those, which have simply glumose flowers, are without doubt the lowest in rank, as corresponding to the tissues and stock, but not yet to the flower.
1614. These again divide into two great groups, whereof the one includes plants with simply uni-seminal cariopsides, the other, on the contrary, capsules containing a free seed—GrassesandReed-grasses. The grasses which have a cariopsis or grain-fruit reascend by two stages; the most inferior in rank do not attain to a ramification, but the flowers stand crowded together in spikes; the others, on the contrary, are pedunculated and ramify in panicles.
1615. Among the higher kinds instead of glumes there are regular flowers, of which, however, the calyx is still glumose or at least green. The cariopsis is converted into a multilocular capsule, as in the Restiaceæ, Commelineæ, &c.
1616. The first order, or theParenchymatous grasses, have glumose flowers with a cariopsis for fruit, borne upon culms or nodose straws, and do not attain to any ramification—spicate grasses. In their seeds we meet with the greatest amount of starch developed, though doubtless at the cost of the trunk.
1617. The second order ofSpathose grassesare similar, and support ramified flowers—paniculate grasses. In this division occur grasses of a dendroidal character,and having occasionally fruit-like ovaria, as in the bamboos.
1618. The third order consists of theCauline grasses. Here the leaves at once separate completely from the shaft, which is therefore free from nodes. Nut-like capsules, though still inclosed in glumes, also make their appearance—reed-grasses.
1619. The fourth order,Floral grasses. The leaves are still only radical; the shaft is anodal; the flowers are separated into green calyx and coloured corolla, with three or six stamina, and mostly with a trilocular capsule—Junceæ, to which the Commelinaceæ are allied.
1620. The fifth order,Carpal grasses. Hollow anodal shafts, with scarcely spathiform, mostly broad leaves, the ribs of which begin to ramify; with similar calyces and corollæ, and numerous capsules—Seeroseæ, to which theAlismaceæandHydrocharideæare related.
1621. The highest kind of fruit attained by this class is nut-like, never fleshy in character. The stalk is nowhere woody as in some grasses. The grasses divide, as do all other orders of plants, into sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)
CLASS V.
Liber-plants—Liliaceæ.
1622. The substance of the stalk is soft and succulent; its structure devoid of nodes; the leaves are tolerably free and ribbed; calyx and corolla coloured, both being perfectly formed and invariably tripartite, as is likewise the capsule, which has many seeds upon its inner angle. These plants are theLilies. In the present class all parts have been developed in conformity to the liber, are rich in sap, and have become dense and fleshy.
1623. The roots are mostly tubers or bulbs, containing a superior kind of mucilage, or aromatic principles. The shaft is not hollow but, though herbaceous, filled up; the leaves are elevated upon the stalk. One division of these plants has irregular corollæ with stunted stamina and capsules, the latter containing mostly dust-like seeds, as in the Orchideæ and aromatic plants.
1624. The other division has regular 2 × 3ary corollæ, with, perfect glume-capsules and middling-sized seeds, as the Irideæ and Liliaceæ proper.
1625. The first order,Parenchymatose lilies. The corollæ are irregular, bilabiate, and stand upon the calyx and a membranous sexlocular capsule with very small seeds; are divided according to the pollen—e. g.pulverulent Orchideæ.
1626. The second order,Sheath-lilies. Characters similar to those of the preceding order, but the pollen is agglomerated into waxy granules—granular orchideæ.
1627. The third order,Stem-lilies. The corollæ are likewise bilabiate and situated above the calyx, but the ovarium contains few seeds, and the capsule is mostly nut-like—aromatic plants, such as theScitamineæandMusaceæ.
1628. The fourth orderFloral-lilies, have regular blossoms, separated into calyx and corolla, placedabovethe capsule, and mostly furnished with three stamina. Here belong theHypoxideæ,HæmodoraceæandIrideæ.
1629. The fifth order,Fruit-lilies. The leaves have not yet completely separated from each other, but still form bulbs; the corollæ are regular, have six stamina, and are placedbeneaththe capsule, as in thetrue lilies. To this order belong theColchicaceæ,AloinæandLiliaceæ. Their bulbs contain mostly acrid matters. They divide into sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)
CLASS VI.
Wood-plants—Palmaceæ.
Plants with woody shaft and with fruits, mostly enclosed in spadices.
1630. The desiccation of the cells and fibres is promoted by the increased process of oxydation. Where therefore the tracheæ attain the preponderance, there the conversion into wood originates.
1631. The stalks of these plants are not hollow, but have a dense interior, because the fasciculi of tracheæ lie within the liber, and there increase.
1632. The main bulk of the stalk will consist of tracheæ.
1633. As the tracheæ are longitudinal organs, and the other tissues also extend lengthways, so does the stalk or stem in these plants predominate over the other parts.
1634. In this class the most perfect leaves as regards their present stage are developed; for they are only expansions of the tracheæ, which are here present in superabundance. As regards the form also, these leaves must rank higher than those of the preceding class; the spathe is shorter, the leaf itself usually broad, many-ribbed, and frequently pinnate. The leaves are also perfect as to position, being no longer mere radical leaves, but situated upon the stalk, even on its apical extremity.
1635. The ramification gradually emerges into view, where forsooth its occurrence is possible in the shaft-plants, or in the inflorescence. It is always multiple in character, mostly spadici-, muscari-, and paniculiform.
1636. As regards the blossom the ovarium is most perfectly evolved, because it is developed out of the stalk; it is ternary and becomes elevated into a fruit with few seeds.
1637. The corollæ are frequently stunted, yet regular and 2 × 3ary, though insignificant on account of the preponderance in size of the fruit.
1638. In this class we meet with the first true or genuine fruits; because in it for the first time the three anatomical systems are completely separated.
1639. Plants having a ligneous stalk, free and many-ribbed leaves, ramified inflorescence and ternary fleshy fruits, are thePalmaceæ. The Palmaceæ have a woody, very hollow stem, with many-ribbed, divided, and often pinnate leaves; a muscariform inflorescence lodged in spathes, sexanary corollæ with nuts, berries, or drupes. With the palms are associated the Typhaceæ, Aroideæ, Piperales, Pandanales, Dioscoreæ, Smilaceæ, Asparagi, Convallariæ, and Bromeliæ; for their stalks are mostlywoody, the leaves broad, and placed upon the stalk, the corollæ stunted, while, on the contrary, the ovarium is carpoidal or fruit-like. The five orders may be disposed as follows:
1640. Order I.Palmaceæ parenchymatosæ.Cynomoridæ,Typhaceæ,Aroideæ.
1641. Order II.P. thecales.Saurureæ,Piperaceæ,Pandanaceæ.
1642. Order III.P. axonales.Dioscoreæ,Smilaceæ,Parideæ.
1643. Order IV.P. florales.Asparagoideæ,Convallariæ,Bromeliæ.
1644. Order V.P. carpales.Palms.
1645. The plants of the first order are very imperfect herbs with spadices. Those of the second have mostly a ligneous, nodose stalk, with one-seeded fruits in spadices, without corollæ. The third have separated corollæ disposed in an open form of inflorescence. The fourth have perfect sexanary corollæ, with a frequently woody stalk and ternary, many-seeded berries. The fifth order consists of trees having large leaves, muscariform spadices, and perfect fruits, nuts, plums, and berries, ternary and one-seeded. They divide into sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)
Third Province.
RETICULAR-LEAVED PLANTS—DICOTYLEDONES.
1646. With the separation of the stock or trunk into root, stalk and leaf, the latter organ attains its perfection; it becomes a reticular leaf—the plants possessing it being calledreticular.
1647. The retinerved or reticular leaf is, however, only the result of a modified organization in the stalk, and indicates a ramification or foliiform arrangement of the tracheæ in the stem. The foliiform arrangement of the tracheæ in the stalk is their circular disposition. These plants havewoody zones. Through this zone or ring of wood first originates the perfect separation intowood, liber and bark, whereof each formerly occupied the whole stalk or stem.
1648. The stalk is no longer a shaft or scape, but it divides into branches and twigs—ramular plants.
1649. The reticular-veined are ramular leaves, and are no longer therefore spathiform but petiolated—petiolated leaves. It is only at the root that spathose leaves may occur, and this only in the plants of the inferior classes.
1650. With the disappearance of the spathose leaves, and the appearance of the ramules, the nodes and bulbs also disappear.
1651. The blossoms stand no longer upon a radical peduncle or stipes, but upon ramules; in other words, upon a plant, which again stands upon another plant, namely, the stalk.
1652. As all the higher separations of leaves here occur, so also does the flower obtain its higher amount of separation; it becomes quinary—pentaschematose plants. The ovarium passes through all numerical conditions, being 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and polycarpellar. In like manner all the forms of ovaria and fruits occur in the present class, such as caryopsis, follicle, legumen, siliqua, capsule, nut, plum, berry and apple.
1653. As the seed is a leaf-formation, so must it resemble the reticular leaf. But reticular leaves are not spathes or simple tubes, but ramified or separated ribs. The seed has therefore several leaves, and two indeed for the first time, which are called seed-lobes. These plants are therefore styledDicotyledones.
DIVISION.
1654. The Dicotyledones are, in the first place, empirically divisible into apetalous, monopetalous and polypetalous, or into plants with calycine, tubular and petalous corollæ.
1655. It might be believed that the Apetalæ were, without further trouble, the lowest in point of rank; but, when closely considered, they appear as Polypetalæ with stunted corolla-petals, and are obviously allied to the Rosaceæ.Moreover, they all bear nuts, a fact which occurs in no other class, and they must be therefore placed among the fruit-bearing plants. Since, however, they are epigynous and perigynous, so must the other polypetalous Perigynæ enter into proximity with them, and in like manner forsooth come among the Fruit-plants.
1656. Thus the Dicotyledones separate into the Monopetalæ, hypogynous Polypetalæ, and perigynous Polypetalæ, along with the Apetalæ. Viewed in a scientific light, they separate according to the principal members of the plant into three districts, Axis-, Flower-, and Fruit-plants.
FIRST CIRCLE.
Stem-plants—Monopetalæ.
1657. The Monopetalæ or Tubulifloræ are the lowest in rank, and must therefore take the place here assigned them. They are still spathose corollæ. Among them are found for the most part only cariopsides and membranous capsules, rarely fruits. They are usually, too, merely herbs, rarely bushes, and still more rarely trees.
1658. They divide into Epigynes, Peri-and Hypogynes, of which the former are the lowest, the latter the highest; for in that which is left similar the coalition is an inferior sign.
1659. Their essential or typical character does not, however, reside in the blossom, but in the trunk, and that indeed in the root, stalk, and foliage. The question therefore may now be asked, whether in the Epigynes the root, in the Perigynes the stalk, and in the Hypogynes the foliage, be the principal organ.
CLASS VII.
Root-plants.
1660. That the Tubulifloræ with superior blossoms and fleshy root are radical plants, admits of being easily demonstrated. The preponderance of the root is evidentfrom its size, its quantity of contained sap, or special chemical ingredients. A root that is rich in sap, and much denser than the stalk, is called a turnip. These plants are thusturnip-plants.
1661. Among the Monopetalæ, however, there are napiform roots only in theEpigynes, namely, the Syngenesia or salad-plants, and among somePerigynes, namely, the Campanuleæ, as well as the Cucurbitaceæ. The Syngenesia are consequently the radical plants. The roots of the Scorzoneræ, Pastinaceæ, Cichoraceæ, and Tussilago or coltsfoot, &c., belong to this class.