VORK 



THE FLOWEKING PLANT 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Scope and Subdivisions of the Subject. — The science of Botany 

 endeavours to answer all questions relating to plants. It is 

 subdivided into numerous branches, which share these questions 

 between them. 



The query, " What is its shape, and why is it so ? " is answered 

 by Vegetable Morphology. This deals not only with outward 

 form {Descriptive Botany), but also with inward form or structure, 

 the larger details of which can be made out by the imaided eye or 

 by means of a lens ( Vegetable Anatomy), while the finer points 

 cannot be cleared up without the help of a compound microscope 

 ( Vegetable Histology). Another primary question is, " How does 

 it act ? " and this time the answer is given by Vegetable Physio- 

 logy. But plants may also be considered in relation to one 

 another. Resemblances and differences are apparent even to the 

 most casual observer. Such a word as "lily" is the expression 

 of a popular conviction that certain flowers (white lily, tiger lily, 

 &c.) have a general resemblance to one another, and are at the 

 same time different from other plants, such as " grasses," for 

 example. Arrangement into groups according to resemblances and 

 differences is Classification, and the question, " How are plants 

 arranged, or how related ? " is answered by Systematic Botany, 

 which is the application of classification to the vegetable world. 

 ^^Any merely popular classification, as into "lilies," "grasses," &c, 

 &$ is of necessity unsatisfactory, for resemblances and differences 

 CJ2 must be noted with a critical eye. An " arum lily," for example, 

 ~is quite different from other lilies, and the name is incorrect. 

 ^^^ Systematic Botany has two chief uses. It enables us, in the first 

 place, to remember a far greater number of facts than would 

 ^Z be possible without a methodical arrangement. And, again, the 



