APPENDIX 



1. Nomenclature and Classification of Plants. 



1. species. — The fact that plants, reared from the seeds 

 of a mother-plant, are like each other and like the parent, is 

 familiar to everybody. Thus plants that spring from the seeds 

 of a Banyan tree become Banyan trees again, and such as spring 

 from Cucumber-seeds become Cucumbers. All such plants, there- 

 fore, which appear to have sprung from the same parent, and 

 agree with each other in all essential parts, constitute a species. 



There is, however, some variation in the development of the 

 various parts of plants belonging to the same species, that is 

 caused by differences of soil, climate, and other conditions. In 

 identifying plants beginners must, therefore, distinguish between 

 essential and accidental variations (cf. Tumbe, page 106). The 

 following extract from Sir Jos. Hooker gives the chief causes of 

 such variations: — 



"A bright light and open situation, particularly at consider- 

 able elevations, without too much wet or drought, tends to 

 increase the size and heighten the colour of floAvers in proportion 

 to the stature and foliage of the plant. Shade, on the contrary, 

 especially with rich soil and suificient moisture, tends to increase 

 the foliage and draw up the stem, but to diminish the number, 

 size, and colour of the flowers. A hot climate and dry situation 

 tend to increase the hairs, prickles, and other productions of the 

 epidermis, and to shorten and stiffen the branches. Moisture in 

 a rich soil has the contrary effect The neighbourhood of the 

 sea, or a saline soil or atmosphere, imparts a thicker and more 

 succulent consistence to the foliage and almost every part of the 

 plant, and appears not unfrequently to enable plants, usually 

 annual, to live through the winter. 



"The luxuriance of plants growing in a rich soil, and the 

 dwarf, stunted character of those crowded in poor soils, or in 

 the cold, damp regions of high mountain-tops, is well known." 



