MONTHLY THE ANTHOLOGY. NOVEMBER, 1804. FOR THE ANTHOLOGY. miration will increafe at every view, and our baffled reason will be compelled to feek a folution of its difficulties in fome principle, anteriour to water, air, fire, oxygen, or light. THE BOTANIST, NO. IV. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas. VIRGIL. Elf is the fage, who, learn'd in Nature's larus, With nice diftinction marks effe&t and cause. DARWIN. NATURAL things, which are common, are diiregarded, because they are common; while rare and monftrous productions are gazed at with idle curiofity and ftupid admiration. What is more common, than a feed or grain? Yet how few give themfelves the exertion of inquiring, what a feed really is? If a feed or grain answer the whole purpofe, for which the farmer fuppofes it was created, of fattening cattle, and feeding his family, he neither fearches its curious ftructure, nor inquires into its phyfiology. There are however, few little things in nature, more truly furprising, than a feed. It is a fyftem, or complete or complete whole, wrought up into a narrow compafs, retaining a living principle. If we contemplate clofely the vegetative life in a feed, our ad The ancients, who viewed Nature with keener eyes and more concentrated attention, than the moderns, were of opinion, that every thing, even the great globe itself, fprang from an egg, which egg, their poets fay, was hatched by Nox, night, obfcurity, or fomething behind a dark veil; which they could not fee through.* Some, lefs diffident, than the ancients, imagine, they have penetrated this veil and illumined the obfcurity by faying, that FIRE is the primary caufe of the developement of a feed. But what do we mean by fire? Is it here any thing more, than a mere word, denoting the last term of sur analytical refults? The moderns have been able to diffect light, analyze air, and decompose water; but have not yet detected the ESSENCE of fire. When therefore we attempt to investigate the primary motion in feeds and other organized bodies, we fhould not ftop at the vifible effeds; but pufh forward to the invifible caufe. When we fpeak of the motive powers of magnetifm or electricity, we fhould ftrive to raise our minds beyond these visible effects to the cause of them. They may not always remain concealed. From this digreffion we turn again to the path, whence we mufingly wandered; which path is to lead us through the riches of the vegetable kingdom to a full view of that facred temple, which chriftian philofophy confecrates to the PARENT of UNIVERSAL NATURE !* We left the infantile plant, ftruggling for life, and extending its lacteals to imbibe nutriment from its mother earth; while its plumula, or little stem and leaf, were afpiring to drink their vital air, which foon changes it from a yellowifh white colour to a beautiful green. That leaves do not acquire their green colour, until they enjoy the light of the fun, is known to every one, wha has noticed plants, growing in dark cellars, or covered over with boards. This operation renders plants lefs acrid, and is ufually performed on endive and cellery, and is called bleaching or etiolation. We fhall refume this fubject, when we speak of the leaves, We must now treat, In fuch an intense view of things we must exclude the word fpontaneity from the Book of NATURE. We must not grant it even to fire, which conflitutes Auidity.t If proud fcience be humbled by fpeculations of this fort, the agriculturalift may have his pride indulged by confiderations of a nother kind; by reflecting, that he is in fome degree a partaker in the power and privileges of the CREATOR, who has enabled him to rear from a few organized particles a field of vegetables, a variegated garden, or a foreft of ftately trees. Man alone, fays OF THE ANATOMY OF A VEGETABLE; the chemist Chaptal, poffeffes the rare advantage of knowing a part of the laws of nature, of preparing events, of predicting refults, of producing effects at pleafure, of removing whatever is noxious, of appropriating whatever is beneficial, of compofing fubftances, which nature herself never forms; in this point of view, himfelf a creator, he appears to partake with the SUPREME BEING in the moft eminent of his prerogatives! See Harris' Philof. Arrang. Part 1ft. The epidermis is a delicate, but firm transparent membrane, covering the plant every where. It is impenetrable to water, and, like the cuticle of the human body, is fooner elevated in the form of a bliiter, than deftroyed by any corrofive fluid. The epidermis of vegetables is, as in the human fearfskin, a fingle membrane, although Duhamel fays he counted fix in the birch tree, and our countryman, Dr. Barton, diftinguithed twice that number. Notwithstanding this refpectable authority, we apprehend, that both thefe naturalifts were deceived. We admit, as a well established opinion, that the epidermis, or cuticle of a tree, is renewed every year; and that where we difcover feveral layers, they are only the old ones, beneath the recent one. Some trees, fays Darwin, have as many cuticles, as they are years old; others caft them more eafily, as a fnake cafts its fkin. Hence the fervice of currying or fcratching trees.* The ufe of the epidermis is to protect the ultimate ramifications of the aerial and aqueous veffels; thofe minute veffels, by which they are enabled to absorb aëriform fluidities, which are needful to the life, health, and beauty of the plant. On removing the epidermis, The cortex or hide of the plant, as the word imports, appears. This is the part, which every one calls the bark. This is known to every one by the name of bark. It is faid, if you continue to fcratch the curvature of a crooked tree, it will in time become straight. It confifts of veffels, glands, and utricles, inofculated, contorted, interwoven, and compacted, in fuch a manner, as to render it very difficult of demonstration. It is among the compounded ftructure of the cortex, or bark, that the work of digeftion is performed; and the product of this digeftion is conveyed through the whole vegetable, till at length the leaf and the flower, the first the lungs, the laft the face, mouth, and entrails, perfect the plant. It is in the bark of a plant, that the medicinal virtues principally refide. In this reticular fubftance are found the oils, refins, gums, balfams, and more occult virtues, fo precious to the healing art. The Peruvian bark and the cinnamon have ftamped celebrity on this part of a vegetable. After the bark is ftripped off, we discover the third integument, namely the liber; which confifts of lamina or plates, bound to gether by a cellular matter, which, when diffolved by maceration in water, detaches thefe plates or coatings from each other; when they resemble the leaves of the books of the ancients; whence arofe the name of liber. The liber is fofter and more juicy, than the cortex. It grows however harder and harder, until it affumes the quality and name of lignum or wood. is interpofed a peculiar fubftance, Between the liber and lignum called alburnum by Linnæus*, blea by the British, arebier by the French, and fap by the American yeomanry. It is whiter and + Utricles are little bags or cells. "Intermedia fubftantia libri et ligni." Linne. fofter, than either the cortex or liber. It is not at all times eafy to diftinguith between the alburnum and the wood, the structure Being fimilar. Indeed the alburnum appears to be but the infantile ftage of the wood, progrefling from a mucilaginous to the adult fate. Between the alburnum and the wood lies a fifth ring or circle of vefiels called the vafcular feries. Its ftructure is fimple, being a fingle courfe of greenish vetiels, lodged between two cellular membranes. It terminates, fays Dr. Hunter,* in the neclaria. Some botanitts confider the vafcular feries, as a part of the alburnum. The fixth part in order is the lignum or wood, which is the moft folid part of the trunk; and is defined by our great mafter to be the alburnum and liber of the preceding year, deprived of their juice, hardened and firmly aggluinated. The wood is compofed of concentrick rings. The centre of thefe circles is generally obferved to be nearer the north, than the fouth fide of the tree. On examining a tranfverfe fection of a trunk, or large limb of a tree, an oak for example, we can generally obferve, that the interiour rings are harder, than the exteriour. It is a prevalent opinion, that one of thefe rings is added every year; and that, regarding the number of circles, we can afcertain the age of the tree. Some have ventured to deny this criterion, although they knew, that Linnæus himielf ex. See Georgical Effays. Philofoph. botanic. amined very aged oaks in fcme of the Iflands of the Baltic with that principle for his guide. This illuftrious fecretary of nature was perfuaded, that he could point out by the ligneous circles, formed in the fevere winters of 1587, 1687, and 1709; as they were thinner, than the reft. This curious circumftance merits the attention of our rural philciphers. Who knows, but we may hence form a probable gueis of the age of the furpriting antiquities, difcovered in this new world on the banks of the Ohio and Muskingum? Subitantial as is the wood or ligneous part of a tree, it is nevertheless fo far from being an eilen. tial part, that many plants are without it. The arundacions plants, the graffes, indeed all the gramina, are naturally hollow. How often do we fee trees, fo in ternally decayed, as to be kept alive merely by a vigorous state of the bark? The feventh and last part is the medulla or pith. This is a fpongy or vehicular fubflance, placed in the centre of the wood, and, according to Linnæus, effential to the life of the vegetable. In the new productions of trees it confifts of a number of oval, greenifh, moift bladders; which at length become empty, dry, and spherical; and by degrees affume a whitish colour. We know but little of the minute ftructure of the pith. It refifts the tincture of the most fubtle colouring fluids; and is as impenetrable to water, as the pith of a goofe-quill. Ought we to infer, that the pith is deftitute of veffels? Or that it is like the |