Page:Enquiry into plants (Volume 1).pdf/55

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ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. ii. 5-6
 

most[1] plants the moisture has no special name, but in some it has such a name, as has been said[2]: and this also holds good of animals: for it is only the moisture of those which have blood which has received a name; wherefore we distinguish animals by the presence or absence of blood, calling some 'animals with blood,' others 'bloodless.' Moisture then is one essential 'part,' and so is warmth, which is closely connected with it.

There are also other internal characters, which in themselves have no special name, but, because of their resemblance, have names analogous to those of the parts of animals. Thus plants have what corresponds to muscle; and this quasi-muscle is continuous, fissile, long: moreover no other growth starts from it either branching from the side[3] or in continuation of it. Again[4] plants have veins: these in other respects resemble the 'muscle,'[5] but they are longer and thicker, and have side-growths and contain moisture. Then there are wood and flesh: for some plants have flesh, some wood. Wood is fissile,[6] while flesh can be broken up in any direction, like earth and things made of earth: it is intermediate between fibre and veins, its nature being clearly seen especially in the outer covering[7] of seed-vessels. Bark and core are properly so called,[8] yet they too must be defined. Bark then is the outside, and is separable from the substance which it covers. Core is that which forms the middle of the wood, being third[9] in order from the bark, and corresponding to the marrow in bones. Some call this part the 'heart,' others call it 'heart-wood'; some

  1. πλείστοις conj. Mold.; πρώτοις Ald.H.
  2. 1. 1. 3.
  3. ἀπαράβλαστον conj. R.Const.; ἀπαράβλητον UMVAld.
  4. ἔτι δὲ conj. W.; ἔχον Ald.
  5. Fibre.
  6. i.e. can be split in one direction.
  7. e.g. an unripe walnut.
  8. i.e. not by analogy with animals, like 'muscle,' 'veins,' 'flesh.'
  9. Reckoning inclusively.
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