BOTANY. 



BOTANY. 



of a species he bad never Men before, by what he know* of tome 

 other special to which it U related. Some idea of the extent to which 

 thi power of judging of plant* a priori is practically useful may be 

 formed from this that supposing the vegetable kingdom to consist 

 of 100,000 apeciei arranged in 6000 or 7000 genera, the vast man of 

 character* required to dutinguiah them will be collected under about 

 300 headx, a knowledge of not more than two-third* of which will be 

 required for the purposes of the general observer. Thus the common 

 hedge-mallow is a mucilaginous inert plant, whose woody tissue ia tough 

 enough to be manufactured into cordage; it has certain botanical 

 characters, which are readily observed and remembered ; and it belongs 

 to a group of plants consisting of not fewer than TOO species. It is 

 only necessary to understand the structure of the common mallow to 

 recognise all the remainder of the group, anil to be aware of their uses 

 and properties ; so that a person in a foreign country who finds a 

 plant agreeing with the mallow in those marks by which' the Malraceir 

 are known, although he should never have seen or heard of the plant 

 before, would immediately recognise it to be mucilaginous and inert, 

 and would expect to find its vegetable fibre tough enough to be 

 manufactured into cordage. It ia this class of facts which alone can 

 lead with any certainty to the discovery in one country of substitutes 

 for the useful plants of another ; it has shown the similarity between 

 the violet roots of Europe and one of the kinds of ipecacuanha of 

 South America ; that the astringency of the alum-root of the United 

 States finds a parallel in those of the geraniums of England ; that 

 madder has its representative in the Isle of France, cinchona in India, 

 and that India-rubber trees exist in the east as well as in the west. 



The artist also would confer an advantage on his art by the study 

 of Botany. It is on account of the utter neglect of any attention to 

 vegetable forms that in almost all objects of art where plants are 

 introduced they are ridiculously wrong. Not only are these mon- 

 strous caricatures of the vegetable kingdom introduced upon our walls, 

 carpets, plates, dishes, saucers, *c., but into many of the great works 

 of art Paintings strictly correct in regard to general outline and 

 colour are filled up with botanical impossibilities. The plants of 

 tropical climates are found flourishing in the forests of Great Britain, 

 and an Assyrian monarch is surrounded with the vegetation of the 

 New World. Such anomalies could not exist if the artist studied as 

 attentively the structure of the vegetable kingdom as he does that of 

 the human body. 



The study of Botany may be divided and pursued under the fol- 

 lowing heads : 



1 . The Chemistry of Plants, including a knowledge of the physical 

 and chemical properties of the elements which enter into the compo- 

 sition of plants. [SECRETIONS, VEGETABLE.] 



2. The Histology of Plants, including the facts connected with the 

 origin of the vegetable cell, the various functions it performs, and its 

 life in connection with others in the formation of organs. [CELL, 

 VEGETABLE ; TISSUES, VEGETABLE.] 



5. The Morphology of Plants, embracing the history of the origin 

 and growth of the individual organs of plants, and the relation of all 

 forms of organs to one another, and the laws which regulate the 

 changes which the same organ undergoes in the same and in different 

 families of plants. [STAMEN; PISTIL; SEED; FLOWER; FRUIT; OVULE.] 



4. The Organology of Plants, including the general phenomena of 

 the entire life of the plant, and the consideration of the relations which 

 animals bear to plants, and the way in which they take port in the great 

 changes going on in the surface of the earth. [.STEM ; ROOT ; LEAF.] 



6. Systematic Botany, embracing the principles of classification and 

 the arrangement of plants in groups according to their relations to 

 each other. This department of botany has been only gradually 

 developed. Under the heads of EXOGENS, ENDOGENS, and ACROGEXS 

 will be found in this work the subdivisions proposed by the most 

 recent writers on systematic botany. In order however to facilitate 

 the student in discovering the order to which any plant he may 

 possess belongs, we give here an analysis of the orders contained in 

 the EXOLISU CTCLOP.EDIA upon the plan followed by Dr. Lindley in 

 his ' Vegetable Kingdom.' 



Class, EXOOENa 

 Sub-Class, POLTPETALJE. (Petals not united). 



I Stamens more than 20 (Polyandrous). 

 A. Ovary wholly or partly inferior 

 a. Stipules present 



1. Carpels more or law distinct or [ Pomacta-. 



solitary \ (Kotamr.) 



2. Carpels combined 



Placenta* central 



Leaves opposite . . . Ithizn^hnraeta. 



Leaves alternate . . . /."i/ilmliicar. 

 Placentas on the side . . . llumaliacetr. 

 I. Stipules absent 



1. Carpels more or less distinct . . Anonaeta. 



2. Carpels united 



Placentas spread about . . . \yuiiilntacttr. 

 Placentas on sides 



Petals definite, distinct . . Loatacti*. 



Petals indefinite, confused . Cactacter. 

 Placentas in the centre 

 Leaves dotted 



Ovary 1 -celled . . . Mamirlaiiriareir. 



Ovary more than 1 -celled . ilyrtaeea. 

 Leaves dotleas 



Petals numerous . . Mrtrmliri/amr. 



Petals few 



Petals narrow . . l A '? iafar - 

 I (.\yttacttr.) 



Petals round 



I , , ( Barriitgloniaeeir. 



{ ( 

 separate . PUasUlpbMM 

 B. Ovary superior 



a. Stipules present 



1. Carpels more or less distinct or solitary 



Stamens hypogynous 



Carpel solitary . . . Ltyumiiuitr. 



Carpels 00 M<i>jn<j!iacea. 



Stamens perigynous 



Styles coming from apex of c.irpeN 



Carpel 1 (Drxpattf. (Rota- 



I fttr). 



Carpels more than 1 . . Jlotacetr. 

 Styles coming from base of 

 carpels. . . * . . 



2. Carpels united ; placentas more than 1 



Placentas on the side (parietal) 



Leaves dotted, dots round . Flacjurtiarea. 

 Leaves dotted, dote linear and 

 round, mixed . . | 

 Placentas in the centre 

 Calyx imbricated 



Flowers unisexual . . Euiihorbiacnr. 

 Flowers hermaphrodite 



Ovary 1 -celled ; se|>als 2 Portularacta: 

 Ovary 2 or more celled 



Calyx double . . Cldtenaccce. 

 Calyx single . . Cataeetr. 

 Culyx valvate 



Stiinens mouodelphous ; 

 anthers 2-celled 



Stamens columnar . Slerculiarea: 

 Stamens not columnar . liyftntriacece. 

 Stamens monadelphous ; 1 



anthers 1-celled . . 

 Stamens monadelphous ; 

 calyx irregular . \ 

 Stamens distinct . . Tiliacect. 

 I. Stipules absent 



1. Carpelsmorcorlessdistinctor solitary 



Carpels immersed in a disk . . Ndumbiaeea. 

 Carpels not immersed 



Stamens perigynous . . . Rvtacta. 

 Stamens hypogynous 



Embryo in a vitellus . . Cabombacete. 

 Embryo naked, very minute 



Seed* with an aril . . JJilleniatear. 

 Kxarillatc; albumen flesliy 



Flowers hermaphrodite Kauuncalaceir. 

 Flo 1 . \ual . ts,->ii:,inili-<irtie. 



Kxarillate ; albumen rumi- 1 , 



nated .... } A >'<"'>- 

 Embryo nearly as long as seed 

 Calyx much imbricated 



Kruit a legume . . Lrgaminotre. 

 Fruit not a legume 



Seeds smooth . Hypericaftir. 

 Seeds liairy . . icerr. 



Calyx little imbricated 



Fruit not a legume . Anacardiacc<r. 

 Fruit a legume . . Lcyuminotir. 



2. Carpels united ; placentas more than 1 



I'l.n-untas parietal, in lines 



Anthers versatile ; juice watery ( '";'/"'>'"'"<'* 

 Anthers innate ; juice milky . Papaveraeea. 

 Placentas parietal, spread over the 1 Flatmlrtiattaf 



lining of the fruit . . . J 

 Placentas spread over dissepiments Nympluracta: 

 Placentas central 



Stigma broad and petaloid . Xarraceniarete. 

 Stigma simple 



Ovary 1 -relied . . . Porlulacafta. 

 Ovary ninny-celled 



Cr lyx much imbricated 



1 .eaves compound . JUtiiulvlafeef. 



