ii INTKODUCriON. 



Botany, as being tliat which is essential for tlie inycstigation 

 iry. We shall aclcl^ howevetj a short chapter on Yegetahle 



§ 1, The Plant in General, 



6. The Plant, in its botanical sense, includes every being which has vegetable Vife^ 

 from the loftiest tree which acloras our landscapes, to the humblest moss which grows 



on its stem, to the mould or fungus which attacks our provisions, or the green scum ^ 

 that floats on our ponds. 



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



opcrationa or phenomena of vegetable life is called an Organ. 



8. Wliat constitutes vegetable life^ and what arc the functions of each organ, be- 

 long to Vegetable Physiology; the microscopical structure of the tissues composing 

 the organs, to Vegetable Anatomy ; the composition of tlic substances of which tliey ^ 

 are formed, to Vegetable Chemistry; under Descriptlm and Systematic Botany \^'& 

 have chiefly to consider the forms of organs, that is, their Morphology^ in the proper "^ 

 sense of the term, and their general structure so far as it affects classification and 

 specific resemblances and differences. The terms we shall now define belong chiefly • 

 to the latter branch of 

 of the Flora of a country 



Anatomy and Physiology, as a general knowledge of both imparts an additional in- 

 terest to and facilitates the comparison of the characters and afiinities of the plants 



examined. 



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

 Root, Stem^ Ijeaves^ Flowers, and Fruit. Qf these the three first, whose func- 

 tion is to assist in the growth of the plant, are Organs of Vegetallon ; the flower and 

 fruit, whose oiBce 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 pli<Bnogamous or phanerogamous 

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

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

 etc., called by botanists cryptogamous plants^ the flowers, the fruit, and not unfre- 

 quently one or more of tlie organs of vegetation, are cither wanting, or replaced by 

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



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

 flowering or phseuogamous plants. The study of tlie cryptogamous classes has now 

 become so complicated as to form almost a separate science. Tliey are tliereforc not 

 included in these introductory observations, nor, with the exception of ferns, 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 Hey^baceous peren- 

 nials, in which the greater part of the j^lant dies after flowerina, leaving only a smaU 

 perennial portion called the Stock or Caudex, close to or within the earth ; Under- 

 shrttbs, suffi-uticose or suffrv.tescent plants, in which the flowering branches, forming a 

 cun^jiderable portion of the plant, die down after flowering, but leave a more or less 

 prominent perennial and woody base; Shrubs {frutescent ovfndicose plants), in which 

 the perennial woody part forms the greater i^art of the plant, but branches near the 

 ba^ie, and does not much exceed a man'^ height ; and Trees {arboreous or arborescent 

 plants) when the height is greater aud forms a woody trunk^ scarcely branching from 

 the J)ase. Bushes are low, much branched shrubs. 



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

 tinctions enumerated above are universally attended to, altliough more useful to the 

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



•Monocarpic plants, wliicli require more than two or three years to produce their 

 flowers, will often, under certain circumstances, become herbaceous perennials, and are 

 generally confounded with them. Truly perennial herbs will often commence flower- 

 ing the first year/ and have then all the appearance of annuals. Manv tall shrubs 



