GENERAL JIORrHOLOGY. 



63 



CHAPTER 2. 



GENERAL MORPHOLOGY OF THE PLANT. 



By the combination of the different varieties of cells and tissues 

 which have been described in the preceding chapter, a variety 

 of compound organs are formed ; these again, by their union in 

 various ways, form the individual plant; and according to their 

 number, and the greater or less degree of complexity which they 

 exhibit, so in a coiTesponding degree does the plant vary in 

 those particulars. Hence we find plants exhibiting a great 

 variety of forms. That part of Botany which has for its object 

 the study of those forms and of their component parts is called 

 Morphology. 



The simplest plant merely consists of a single cell, which may 

 vary much in its form; thus in the Red Snow- plant (jigs. 147 and 



Fig. 147. 



Fia. 149. 



Fig. 148. Several Red Snow-plants (Protococcus nivalis'), 

 magnifled Fio- 147. One plant still more highly mag- 

 nified Fig. 14y. Two plants of Oscillatoria sinralis. 



Fig. 148. 



148), it is round; in the Oscillatoria C/?^. 149) lengthened; in 

 others branched in various ways (fg. 17). In these simple plants 

 we are unable to distinguish any separation of the vegetative and 

 reproductive functions, which is so e\ddent in the higher plants, 

 but the cell of which they are composed is capable of performing 

 both those functions. The jjlants immediately above these con- 

 sist of numerous cells combined in a single row, and either 

 simple (fig. 150), or branched (fig. 151) in a variety of ways 

 (fig. 152). In these plants we frequently find one or more of 

 the cells acquiring a special development, and producing in 

 their interior a number of others of a smaller size (fig. 1 50). Here 

 we have the first trace of a separation or distinction of the ceUs of 



