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Show I 12 VEGETABLE GLANDULATION. NoTE XXXIX. gum of cherry or plumb-trees, gum tragacanth from the afl.ragalus tr:tgac.:nth:l, camph~r from the laurus c::unphora, elemi from amyris clemifcra, an erne from hymcncx:a caurban 1, turpentine from piflacia tercbinthus, balfam of Mecca from the buds of amyris opobJ~fammn, branches of which are placed in the temples of the Eafl: on account of therr 'fragrance, the wood"is called xylobalfamum, and the fruit carpobalfamum; aloe from a plant of the fame name; myrrh from a plant not yet dcfcrib cd; the remarkably elaflic refin is brought into Europe princ ipally in the form of flaiks, which look like black leather, and arc wonderfully elaflic, and not penetrable by water, rectified ether dilfolvcs it; its flexibility is encreafed by warmth and deflroyed by cold ; the n·ee which yields this juice is the jatropha elaflic:1, it grows in Guaiana and the neighbouring tracts of America; its juice is faid to refemble wax in becoming foft by heat, but that it ac~ uires no elaflicity till that property is communicated to it by a fccret art, after which it is poured into moulds and well dri ed and can no longer be rendered fluid by heat.Mr. de la Borde, phy11cian :~t Cayenne has given this account. Manna is obtained at Naples from the fraxinus ornus, or manna-afh, it partly iffues fpontaneoufiy, which is preferred, and partly exfudes from wounds made purpofely in the mcmth of Augufl, many other plants yield manna more fpari11gly; fugar is properly mnde from the facchannn officinale, or fugar-cane, but is found in the roots of beet and many other plants; American wax is obtained from the myrica cerifera, candle-berry myrtle, the berries 'are boiled in w:~ter and a green wax feparates, with luke-warm water the wax is yellow: the feeds of croton febiferum are lodged in tallow; there are many other vegetable exfudations ufcd in the various arts of dyeing, varnifhing, tanning, lacquering, and which fupply the flwp of the druggifl: with medicines and with poifons. · There is another analogy, which would feem to affociate plants with animals, and -which pcrh:~ps belongs to this Note on Glandulation, I mean the fimilarity of their digeflive powers. In the roots of growing vegetables, as in the procefs of making malt, the farinaceous part cf the reed is converted into fugar by the vegetable power of digeflion in the fame manner as the farinaceous matter of feeds is converted into fweet chyle by the animal digeflion. The fap-juice which rifes in the vemal months from the roots of trees through the alburnum or fap-wood, owes its fweetnefs I fuppofc to a fimilar digeUive power of the abfoxbent fyfl:em of the young buds. This exifls in many vegetables in great abundance as in vines, fycamorc, biTch, and mofl: abundantly in the ·palm-tree, (lfert"s Voyage to Guinea,) and feems to be a fimilar fluid in Jll plants, as chyle is fimilar in all animals. Hence as the digefl:ed food of vegetables confifls principally of fugar, and from that is produced again their mucilage, flarch, and oil, and fince animals are fuflained by thefe vegetable produClions, it would fcem that the fugar-making procefs carried on in vegetable vcffcls was the great fource of life to all 'organized beings. And that if our improved chemifhy fhould ever difcover the art of making fugar from foilile or aerial matter without the aililhmce of vegetation, food for animals would then become as pl~ntiful as w~ter, and.mankind might live upon the earth as thick as blades of grafs, wah no reflramt to thetr numbers but the watlt of local room. I Non: XXXIX. VEGETABLE GLANDULATION. IIJ . It would feem that roots fixed in the earth, and leaves innumerable waving in the atr were ne~elfary for the decompofition ()f water, and the coRver!ion of it into faccharine matter, .whrch w~uld have been not only cumberous but totally incompatible with the locomotwn of an1mal bodies. For how could a man or ·quadruped have carried on his head .or ~ac~ a forefl of leaves, or have had long branching laCl:eal or abforbent velfcls termmatmg 111 the earth? Animals therefore fubfifl on vegetables ; that is, they take t~e matt~r fo. far prepared, and have organs to prepare it further for the purpofes of h1gher ammat10n, and greater fenfibility. In the fame manner the apparatus of green leaves and long roots were found inconvenient for the more animated and fenfitive parts ~f vegetable-flo~ers, I mean the anthers and fligmas, which are therefore feparate bemgs, end~cd With the pailion and power of reproduClion, with lungs of their own, and fed with honey, a fo~d ready prepared by the long roots aqd green leaves of the plant, and prcfented to theJr abforbent mouths. From thi.s outline a ~hilofophcr may catch a glimpfe of the general economy of nature ; ~nd l1ke the manner cafl upon an unknown fhore, who rejoiced when he faw the pnnt of a human foot upon the fand, he may cry out with rapture, " A Gon "DWELLS H!RE. " p |
