MANUAL OF BOTANY. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



Natural History, as a science, has for its object the investiga- 

 tion of every thing that relates to the bodies placed on the surface 

 of the globe; or combined so as to form its substance. These 

 in common language, and by the scientific observer, are divided 

 into three great divisions ; called, respectively, the Animal, 

 Vegetable, and Mineral kingdoms. The bodies comprised in the 

 two former, being possessed of life, form the Organic or Animate 

 creation; while those of the latter, not being endowed with life, 

 form the Inanimate or Inorganic creation. It is our pro^ance in 

 this work to treat of the lower ranks of the organic creation, 

 called Plants or Vegetables. The science which investigates 

 these is termed Botany, from the Greek word Potolvt], signifying 

 an herb or grass. 



Departments of Botany. — This science in its extended sense 

 embraces everything which has reference to plants, either in a 

 living or fossil state. It investigates their nature; their internal 

 organization; their external configuration; the laws by which 

 they are enabled to grow and propagate themselves; and their 

 relations to one another, and to the bodies by which they are 

 surrounded. As a science, therefore, it is of vast extent, and 

 one which requires for its successful prosecution the most care- 

 ful and systematic study. It may be divided into the following 

 departments: — 1. Organography ; this includes everything which 

 relates to the internal structure and external configuration of 

 plants, and their various parts or organs ; the portion of the 

 subject treating of their structure is commonly termed Struc- 

 tural Botany; and that which has reference to their forms, 

 Morphological Botany — 2. Organology or Physiological Botany ; 

 this treats of plants, and their organs, in a state of life or action. 

 3. Systematic Botany; this considers plants in their relations to 

 one another, and comprehends their arrangement and classifica- 



