An introduction to physiological and systematical botany / by James Edward Smith.
- James Edward Smith
- Date:
- 1814
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An introduction to physiological and systematical botany / by James Edward Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![their food in the earth, and some of which may be turned inside out, like a glove, without any disturbance of their ordinary functions. The most satisfactory re- mark I have for a long time met with on this difficult subject is that of M. Mirbel, in his Traite cVAnatomie at cle Physiologie Vegtales* a work I shall often have occasion to quote. He observes, vol. I. p. 19, that plants alone have a power of deriving nourishment, though not indeed exclusively, from inorganic matter, mere earths, salts or airs, substances certainly incapable of serving as food for any animals, the latter only feeding on what is or has been organized matter, either of a vegetable or animal nature. So that it should seem to be the office of vegetable life alone to transform dead matter into organized living bodies. This idea ap- pears to me so just, that I have in vain sought for any exception to it. Let us however descend from these philosophical speculations to purposes of practical utility. It is suffi- cient for the young student of Natural History to know, that in every case in which he can be in doubt whether he has found a plant or one of the lower orders of ani- mals, the simple experiment of burning will decide the question. The smell of a burnt bone, coralline, or other animal substance, is so peculiar that it can never be mistaken, nor does any known vegetable give out the same odour.(l) * Published at Paris two or three years since, in 2 vols. 8vo. (1) [It has been remarked that some vegetable products, such as the gluten of wheat, caoutchonc, and the juice of the papaw nee ; give out in burning nearly the same peculiar odour which is afforded by animal matter.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21155082_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
