PLANTS AND THEIR USES 



chapti-:r I 



THE STUDY OF PLANTS 



1. Botanical questions. When an unfamiliar plant at- 

 tracts our attention usually the first questions we wish to 

 ask are : What is it? What is it good for? or What does it do? 

 Such questions have been asked from early times about 

 plants in all parts of the world, and the classified knowledge 

 which has been acquired in endeavoring to answer them has 

 given us the science of botany. 



In beginning our study of the subject it will be profitable 

 for us to consider in a general way what it really means to 

 answer questions of this sort, so that we may appreciate 

 something of their importance and what they involve. Each 

 question, as we shall see, has led to numberless others until 

 the science has so broadened as to embrace every reasonable 

 inquiry that may be made regarding plants. 



2. The beginnings of botany. Like most people to-day, 

 the earliest botanical writers concerned themselves more 

 with the uses of plants than with their forms and habits. 

 Thus Pliny, the most learned of Roman writers on natural 

 history, significantly remarks that there were, to be sure, 

 other plants in the hedges, fields, and roadsides than those 

 he had described, but they had no names and were of no use. 

 It is surely only natural that the uses of plants should be what 

 first arouses our interest in them. Every one can appreciate 

 most readily the advantages of knowing all we can about 

 things which contribute so greatly to our welfare. 



3. Our dependence upon plants. Let us consider for a 

 moment how much we depend upon the vegetable kingdom. 

 Every one knows that in all we eat and drink, the nutritious, 

 strength-giving part comes either from plants or animals. 

 As the animals which yield us food depend in their turn either 



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