HOT A XV. 



BOTANY. 



It appear* that the gum-resin ailed olihanum is the fnuikinceiue 

 that was used by the aocieuU in their religion* ceremonies. Liniueiu 

 was of opinion that it was yielded by the I.rcian juniper ; but that 

 plant U a native of the south of France as well as of the Levant, and 

 the botanists of that country deny that any such substance is produced 

 by their juniper. The Greeks obtained their frankincense from 

 Arabia. The Arabians call olibanum both Luban and Cundur ; but 

 aa benzoin is most used at the prenent day for religious purposes, the 

 Mohammedan writers of India on Materia Medica apply only the term 

 Condor to oUbanoBt. This Cundur has been ascertained by Messrs. 

 Colt-brook*, Hunter, and Roxburgh to be yielded by Jlotvettia 

 llmriftra or B. icrrala. It is a large timber-tree found in the moun- 

 tainoiu porU of India, yielding a most fragrant resin from wounds 

 . made in the bark. Its leares are pinnate, and consist of about ten 

 pain of hairy serrated oblong leaflets, each of which is from an inch 

 to an inch anil A half in length. The flowers are pale pink, small, 

 and numerous. The calyx is 5-lobed, the corolla of 5 downy petals, 

 the disk a fleshy crenel led cup, and the stamens 10, alternately 

 shorter. The fruit is a 3-sidod, 3-valved, 3-celled capsule, containing 

 a single-winged pendulous seed in each cell. 



Ki i.ni this Roxburgh distinguishes as a different species Sotweliia 

 glabra, a plant also yielding a resin which is used for incense and as 

 pitch in some parts of India. It differs from the last in having no 

 hairs on its leaves, in its leaflets being often toothless, and in its 

 flowers being panicled. 



A substance analogous to olibanum, and used in a similar way in 

 various parts of the world, is procured from several different trees, 

 such a*, in America, the Croton nilnu (Schwartz), C. thurifcr (KimtM, 

 C. adipattu (Kunth) : in Columbia, Baillicria nerrifolia (Kunthi yields 

 the American frankincense; the Amyrii (Idea Tatamahaca, Kuntli) 

 ainbn*nu-n (Linn.), yields also the resin coumier, likewise called 

 American frankincense. 



i apctala (Jacq.) also yield* a substance similar to frank- 

 us*. 



. olibanum occurs in commerce of two kinds, the Arabian and East 

 Indian. The former kind is now seldom met with, and its origin is a 

 Kul.ject of doubt; the latter is obtained from the tree above described, 

 and to it we limit our remarks. There are two varieties or degrees of 

 fineness of it, thfl best called ' olibanum electrum,' or 'in granig,' some-, 

 times called 'thus maniiic' or 'thus masculum' : the other U termed 

 ' olibanum commune,' or ' in sortis,' also ' focmineum.' The first occurs 

 in pieces varying from the size of a hazel-nut to that of a walnut, or 

 larger, which are roundish or irregular in shape, of a light yellowish 

 colour, varying to red or brown in some pieces, opaque or semi- 

 transparent, the outside often covered with a white powder, and upon 

 being pounded the whole becomes a white powder. It is very 

 friable, and breaks with a dull, sometimes even, sometimes splintery 

 fracture. 



The second sort is generally in larger pieces, mostly of a dirty -gray 

 or fawn-colour, and intermingled with pieces of wood and other 

 impurities. 



BOTANY is that branch of science which comprehends all that 

 relate* to the Vegetable Kingdom. The term Botany U derived 

 from the Oreek, in which Horarri signifies any kind of grass or herb, 

 and Borariirii the art which teaches the nature of plants and herbs. 

 The structure of plants, their mode of growth, their habits of life, 

 their mutual relations, their uses to man or the danger that results 

 from their employment, the station they occupy in the scale of 

 the creation, and many other similar considerations, form each an 

 extensive field of inquiry which botany combines into one connected 

 whole. 



Although the limits of the science of Botany can be easily defined 

 to be the structure and functions of plant*, it is not so easy to define 

 the nature of a plant. It is true that with regard to the great mass 

 of organic forms which belong to the vegetable kingdom there is no 

 difficulty in at once assigning them their position, but there are a 

 very large number of organised bodies that stand in such intimate 

 relations with the animal kingdom as to create a perpetual difficulty 

 with regard to their real nature. At the time when it was considered 

 sufficient distinction between plants and animals that the former 

 were fixed and the latter had the power of locomotion, large orders 

 of beings which are now classed with plants were regarded as animals. 

 To some of these it may be interesting to draw attention, as it is 

 amongst them that the naturalist is enabled to observe in its simplest 

 forms the true nature of the functions of vegetable structure. It was 

 in the large order Alga [Ato.:], to which belong the various forms of 

 sea-weeds, and the lowest orders of plants inhabiting fresh-water, 

 that those functions were first observed that were supposed to be 

 peculiar to animals. Amongst the OtciUalorut it was found that a 

 number had a distinct power of self -movement, so that as far as these 

 were concerned it became evident that locomotion would not 

 distinguish plants from animals. Many of the early observer* with 

 the microscope had also seen that the spores or cells that represented 

 seeds in the higher plants had the power of motion. In order to 

 distinguish between these movements and those possessed by the ova 

 of animals, it was supposed that the latter had cilia whilst the former 

 li.nl not. linger and Thuret however,' in 1843, both aiiii'.iinccd the 

 font that the sporca of many Atya posses* vibratilu cilia, not to I..- 



distinguished from those on animal bodies. This important discovery 

 has been followed by a very rigid examine . iirious organised 



bodies admitted by Ehrenberg into the class of Animalcules, in his 

 ' Infusionsthicrchen,' on account uf their : l>y means of cilia. 



The consequence has been that large numbers of the Infuturia of 

 Ehrenberg are now regarded as plants. One of the mont remarkable 

 of these is the Wrox global ur, or Globe Animalcule, which, although 

 endowed with cilia and possessing the most active powers of n 

 hat through the recent researches of Professor Williamson and Mr. 

 Busk been shown to be an undoubted plant. Not only does the 

 history of its development and it* mode of reproduction bear out this 

 conclusion, but also the presence of starch, detected by Mr. Uusk during 

 the growth of the young Yutnur c Microscopical Transactions,' vol. i. 

 New Series). The placing this form in the kingdom is 



important, as a large number of the forms placed l.y Khit-nberg near 

 Vo/rw must now be regarded also as plants. This serves to remove 

 the anomaly which has sometimes been insisted on, that the lower 

 animals perform the functions of the higher plant*, that in, take up 

 carbonic acid and throw out oxygen. The fact is, these lower animals 

 are plants. [ANIMAL KINGDOM.] 



Khronberg also describes and figure* the families of Matomacrtr 

 and Detmitleir in his /nfiuuria. They have the power of movement 

 but ore destitute of cilia. The Uetmidea; contain chlnnipliyle, are 

 developed similar to the Alga, and the fact f their conjugating 

 after the manner of the Zyyna-mata amongst the Alga, first observed 

 li\ Mi. Thwaites, has led naturalists to place them amongst plants. 

 Mr. Haifa, whose work on the 'British Deemidew' i- " !' the best 

 on the subject, states that he has found starch universally present 

 amongst them. The Diatamacea are not no decidedly vegetable in 

 their nature. Lindley in his ' Vegetable Kingdom,' however, admit* 

 Diotomaetr, and regards Demidea as a sub-kingdom. The presence of a 

 shell or frustule of silica, sometimes very complicated in it 



led Schlcideu to reject the IHaiomacctr as plants, whilst Kutzing 

 admits some and rejects others. Their general resemblance to 

 Dttmidete has given them their position in the vegetable kingdom. 

 On the other hand the Sponges (Spongiada), which were placed 

 amongst animals on account of the active motile habit* of their ova, 

 seemed to be destined to classification again with plant - when m itility 

 no longer became the distinguishing mark of the two kingdoms. 

 There are, however, other points of structure which still induce the 

 zoologist to lay claim to the sponges. The coralline* 

 which were formerly classed with the sponges, flint as plants, then as 

 animals, are now again placed with the ' ' Amongst the sea- 



eodn, and have a decided relation to the vegetable kingdom. 

 From these facts it i very evident that no mere technical definition 

 will enable the naturalist to separate the animal ami vagi 

 kingdoms, and that it is only by observing the structure and 

 functions of organic beings through the whole course of thi-ir existence 

 that we con hope to assign them their right position as plants or 

 animals. 



In determining the sphere of Botany by the inquiry into the nature 

 of the plant, it will at once be seen that the study of plants cannot 

 be successfully prosecuted without inquiry into the nature of animals. 

 Again, the chemical elements of which plant* and animals are formed. 

 exert a great influence through their peculiar properties on the life 

 of these beings. These must be always taken into consideration in 

 speaking of the structure of a plant or the functions it (icrfonng. 

 Hence we see that Botany is but the part of a grc t facts 



in which the inorganic elements, the cell) of plants, and the cells of 

 animals, ore constantly taking a part. 



In order to study Botany therefore successfully, the first knowledge 

 that is necessary is that of the properties of tli 



into the composition of plant* and animals. These are more espe- 

 cially four, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which on account 

 of their universal presence in plants and iiiiinil> have liecti called 

 organic or necessary elements. In addition to these are fouud twelve or 

 n other elements, which not being uni. nay be 



colled occasional or inorganic elements. Sulphur, phosphorus, aaloium, 

 potassium, sodium, iron, magnesium, iodine, bromine, silica, ore the 

 most conspicuous of these element*. The organic elements cnti -r 

 into various compounds which are found in plants, as sugar, starch, 

 cellulose, protein, chlorophyle, gums, resins, alkaloids, acids, &c. ; 

 whose properties should be studied in order that their presence may 

 be readily recognised in the dissection of plants. In order to accomplish 

 this, re-agents must be employed, as iodine, potassa, sulphuric a< id, 

 iron, and many others, which on being applied to tl< plants 



reveal by their action the nature of the vegetable compound*. 



One of the most important aids to the study of the tiueturo of 

 plants, and by which the great recent progress in phjsiol.igy has 

 been made, is the microscope. The textures of plant* as well as 

 animals take their origin in cells so minute that they cannot be seen 

 by the naked eye. It is in and around these cells that the active 

 functions of every part of an animal or plant ore going on ; and it is 

 only as the botanist gets to know the nature of the changes which 

 the vegetable elements and their compounds undergo in the 01 

 plants, that ho can compiehend the general laws of vegetable life. 

 Not only is it necessary to the botanist to study tl l>y the 



sid of the microscope, but the general phyniolugwt and student of the 



