10 THE STUDY OF PLANTS 



tion, naming, and classification of plants. It investigates 

 especially the resemblances and differences which botanists 

 depend upon in their systems of arrangement. 



Geographical Botany seeks to discover the native home of 

 each plant, its migrations, if any, and the nature of its 

 habitat, i. e., the surroundings amid which it grows wild. 



Fossil Botany is the study of the remains of plants of former 

 ages which have been preserved as fossils. 



Biological i Botany is the study of plants in regard to their 

 ways of life as shown in the form and activities of their parts. 

 Questions which relate simply to the form or structure of 

 parts come within the subdepartment Vegetable Morphol- 

 ogy 2 or Morphological Botany. Such as concern simply the 

 activities of parts, or the Hfe-processes going on within them, 

 belong to Vegetable Physiology ^ or Physiological Botany. 

 Finally, under Vegetable Ecology ^ or Ecological Botany come 

 all questions as to how the different parts are adapted by 

 their form and behavior to serve the welfare of the indi- 

 vidual and the species, i. c., the relation of plants to their 

 homes. 



' Bi-o-log'-i-cal < Gr. bios, lifo; logos, logical account. 



- Mor-phol'o-gy <C Or. morphe, form. 



' Phys-i-ol'o-gy < Gr. physis, nature. 



•* E-col'o-gy <C Gr. oikos, household. 



Ecology considers the special ways in which plants solve the prob- 

 lems of their domestic economy, such as their manner of obtaining food, 

 protecting themselves, and providing for their offspring. Ecology, also 

 spelt oecology, is a word recently come into use among botanists, to 

 designate a branch of botany which has been developed almost entirely 

 within the memory of those now living. It has been used in rather 

 various senses but generally with the meaning given above at least 

 implied. Sometimes especial emphasis is put upon the peculiar associa- 

 tions or communities of plants that flourish in different kinds of homes, 

 and upon the physical peculiarities of the homes themselves; but such 

 matters are here referred in large part to geographical botany. 



