Anatomy of plants, the study of plant structure. We can do no better than report what the author of La Théorie et la pratique du jardinage, 1747 (part III, p. 176), states on the subject. [1]

‘All living things need to respire and there is no doubt that plants respire as well as animals. Like animals, plants have all of the organs which are necessary to life, such as veins and fibres, of which some take nutrients to the upper parts and some down to the roots. [2] Other organs, such as air passages and lungs, respire continually and receive the effects of the sun. [3] Air is so vital to plant growth, that a drop of oil placed at the tip of a root will block its passage into the fibres and ducts, and kill that part of the root which is soaked in oil. The movement of sap is accelerated to a greater or lesser extent according to the warmth of the soil and density of the air: the sap thus rises quickly, performs its function, and demonstrates its strength.’

Is there anything more admirable than plant structure? There are different crucibles and moulds for the bark, wood, thorns, hairs, pith, down, leaves, flowers, fruit, and seeds. The earth’s juice, passing and filtering through the seed coat, receives from it the necessary ingredients of the nutritive sap which enters the plant and spreads by fermenting in a thousand different ways. [4] The sun’s warmth and the soil’s fermentation then perfect the work. Finally, plants are composed of small, separate vessels produced in the soil: these small vessels slowly gather into bundles and then into a single cylinder forming a trunk, which grows roots at one end and branches at the other. Gradually, the larger bundles subdivide into smaller ones and the picture is completed by the sprouting of leaves.

* The anatomy of plants is no less worthy of the philosophe’s attention than that of animals. [5] Indeed, how many marvels does it not offer us in the works of Malpighi and Dr Grew, and in the static of plants? [6] It seems that the ancients made little progress in this field, which is hardly surprising: plant structure is an arrangement of such fine filaments and cells, of such narrow vessels and tight pores, that the moderns would have achieved little without the invention of the microscope. [7] See what this instrument and their own reflections have taught them about plant anatomy, in articles: Plant, Tree, Shrub, Bush, Grass, Grain, Root, Stem, Bud, ‘Branch’, ‘Leaf, ‘Flower’, ‘Fruit’, etc. See also article Animal.

Notes

1. This influential book was written by none other than the author of the article in question, namely Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville (1680-1765). First published in Paris in 1709, it was translated into English by John James in 1712. The third edition of 1747 was the basis for Dezallier d’Argenville’s articles for the Encyclopédie (Russell, 1993, p. 17).

2. ‘Organ’ now pertains to the roots, stems, or leaves of plants. Veins are vascular bundles, of which xylem generally takes water and mineral salts up to the leaves and growing points, and phloem takes dissolved sugars in either direction (Huxley et al., 1992, iii.607).

3. The ‘lung’ of a plant was formerly called the ‘trachea’ or ‘duct’. See articles: ‘Ame des plantes’, ‘Fistules’. Reference is now made to the stomata, lenticels, air spaces, and narrower intercellular spaces, which are located in plant organs and permit the exchange of gases (Huxley et al., 1992, iii.603-17).

4. The seed stores food reserves for germination, either in the tissue surrounding the embryo, or in the cotyledon. The seed is able to absorb only water (ibid., 619).

5. On the meaning of the word ‘philosophe’, see above, p. 15.

6. From 1675-79, Malpighi compared the microscopic anatomy of a number of plants ( Encyclopedia Britannica, 1995, vii.743). Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712), published The Anatomy of Plants in 1682: it is cited in article ‘Anatomy of plants’, Miller, 1724, i.A23. Stephen Hales’ Vegetable Staticks of 1727 was translated by Buffon in 1735.

7. Miller makes this point in article ‘Anatomy of plants’, Miller, 1724, i.A23. On Miller, see Appendix 2. It was Malpighi who pioneered microscopic anatomy, by applying the optical lens to the study of plant and animal structure ( Encyclopedia Britannica, 1995, vii.743).