A System of Physiological Botany, Volume 1

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Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy ... ; W. Blackwood, 1816 - Plant physiology - 1004 pages

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Page 7 - And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.
Page 22 - Magnol, which appeared about the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century...
Page 214 - Aspermce or plants without seed. But this arrangement was now no longer regarded as being at all satisfactory ; and botanists, who began to suspect that a distinction existed even in Mosses, were at last induced to undertake the irksome but indispensable task of a minute and scrupulous investigation of the several parts and appearances of individual subjects during their several stages of growth, with a view to the discovery of sexual organs. Perhaps the first hint leading to a correct view of the...
Page 361 - Reishel is said to have detected them even in the plumelet and radicle. But, in whatever part of the plant they are found to exist, they are always endowed with a considerable degree of elasticity, as has been already noticed. For though they are forcibly extended, so as wholly to undo the spires, they will again contract, and resume their former figure, when the extending cause is withdrawn; and if they are even stretched till they break, the fragments will again coil themselves up as before. It...
Page 352 - But they are particularly conspicuous in the stem and other parts of the different species of Euphorbia and Periploca ; and in all plants in general containing thick and resinous juices, known by the name of the proper juices, to the ready passage of which their great width of diameter is well adapted. Sometimes they are distinguishable by their colour, which is that of the juices contained in them ; being white, as in Euphorbia ; or yellow, as in Celandine ; or scarlet, as in Piscidia erythrina....
Page 38 - If a pair of these knobs is taken and separated, and then immersed in water, the one will be found to sink, and the other to swim. This is a phenomenon which seems also to have puzzled the simplists of antiquity not a little, and to have given rise to a great deal of idle and superstitious conjecture. It was thought that the knob that swims must necessarily have possessed some peculiar and potent properties, and accordingly some potent properties were liberally ascribed to it. If prepared in a particular...
Page 450 - Manchester, has made some curious and important experiments on the connexion between the temperature of caoutchouc and its elasticity, from which it results that ductility as well as fluidity is owing to latent heat.* Caoutchouc is not altered by exposure to the air. It is perfectly insoluble in water ; but if boiled in water...
Page 349 - ... the pulp and pith to that of the firm and perfect wood. The structure of the utricles of the tree is also said to be different from that of the utricles of the herb ; the former being composed of a single membrane, and the latter of a double membrane. Senebier is, however, of opinion, that they consist of a double membrane in both cases, though not so conspicuous in the one case as in the other, owing to the more compact and condensed texture of the wood. However, they are all mutually connected...
Page 246 - If a basin is filled with water, and a little of the powder strewed upon the surface so as to cover it thinly, the hand may be plunged into it and thrust down to the bottom without being wetted with a single drop of water. Several of the...

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