ii • OUTLINES OF 



7. Every portion of a plant which has a distinct part or function to perform in 

 the operations or phenomena of vegetable life is called an Organ. 



8. What constitutes vegetable life, and what are the functions of each organ, 

 belong to Verjetable Physiology ; the microscopical structure of the tissues composmg 

 the organs, to Vegetable Anatomy ; the composition of the substances of which they 

 are fonned, to Vegetable Chemistry ; under Descriptive and Systematic Botany we 

 have chiefly to consider the forms of organs, that is, their Morjjhology, in the 

 proper sense of the term, and their general structure so far as it affects classifica- 

 tion and specific resemblances and differences. The terms we shall now define 

 belong chiefly to the latter branch of Botany, as being that which is essential for the 

 investigation of the Flora of a country. We shall add, however, a short chapter 

 on Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, as a general knowledge of both imparts an 

 additional interest to and facilitates the comparison of the characters and afl&nities 

 of the plants examined. 



9. In the more perfect plants, their organs are comprised in the general terms 

 Root, Stem, Iieaves, Flowers, and Fruit. Of these the three first, whose 

 function is to assist in the growth of the plant, are Organs of Vegetation; the flower 

 and fruit, whose office is the formation of the seed, are the Organs of Reproduction. 



10. All these organs exist, in one shape or another, at some period of the life of 

 most, if not all, flowering plants, technically called ph(Bnoyamous or pJiancrogamous 

 plants: which all bear some kind of flower and fruit in the botanical sense of the 

 term. In the lower classes, the ferns, mosses, fungi, moulds or mildews, seaweeds, 

 etc., called by botanists crypto gamo us plants^ the flowers, the fruit, and not unfre- 

 quently one or more of the organs of vegetation, are either wanting, or replaced by 

 organs so different as to be hardly capable of bearing the same name. 



11. The observations comprised in the following pages refer exclusively to the 



flowering or phaenogamous plants. The study of the cryptogamoiis classes has 

 now become so complicated as to form almost a separate science. They are there- 

 fore not included in these introductory observations, nor, with the exception of 

 ferns and their allies, in the present Flora. ? -^ 



12. Plants are 

 Monocarpic, if they die after one flowering season. These include Annuals^ 



which flower in the same year in which they are raised from seed ; and Biennials, 

 which only flower in the year following that in which they are sown. 



Caulocarpic, if, after flowering, the whole or part of the plant lives through 

 the winter and produces fresh flowers another season. These include Herbaceous 

 perennialsj in which the greater part of the plant <lies after flowering, leaving only 

 a small perennial portion called the Stock or Caudex, close to or within the earth ; 

 Undershruhs, suffruticose or suffrufescent plants, in which the flowering branches, 

 forming a considerable portion of the plant, die down after flowering, but leave a 

 more or less prominent perennial and woody base ; Shrubs (frutescent or fruticose 

 plants), in which the perennial woody part forms the greater part of the plant, but 

 branches near the base, and does not nauch exceed a man's height ; and Trees (ar*- 

 horeous or arborescent plants) when the height is greater and forms a woody trunks 

 scarcely branching from the base. Bushes are low, nmch branched shrubs. 



13. The terms Monocarpic and Caulocarpic are but little used, but the other dis- 

 tinctions enunicrtited above are universally attended to, although more useful to 

 the gardener than to the botanist, who cannot always assign to them any precise 

 character. Monocarpic plants, which require more than two or three years to pro- 

 duce their flowers, will often, under certain circumstances, become herbaceous 

 perennials, and are generally confounded with them. Truly perennial herbs will 

 often commence flowering the first year, and have then all the appearance of 

 annuals. Many tall shiubs and trees lose annually their flowering branches like 

 undershrubs, And the same botanical species may be an annual or a perennial, a 

 herbaceous perennial or an undershrub, an undershrub or a shrub, a shrub or a tree, 

 according to climate, treatment, or variety. 



^^14^, i'lants are usually terrestrial, that is, growing oh eartt, or aquatic, i.e., grow- 

 ling in water ; but sometimes they may be found attached by their roots to other 

 plants, in which case they oxe epiphytes when simply growing upon other plants 



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