BOTANY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Botany may be defined as the science of plants. It constitutes 

 one of the two grand divisions of organic science, the other 

 being zoology, or the science of animals. In its broadest sense 

 it includes all classified knowledge of vegetable organisms from 

 the lowest to the highest. A science of such scope has, of 

 course, many branches, each of which is of more or less import- 

 ance. Plants may, for example, be considered with reference to 

 the parts or organs of which they are composed, and the minute 

 structure of these parts, giving rise to the departments of Struc- 

 tural Botany, including Organography and Vegetable Histology ; 

 they may be viewed with reference to the modifications, 

 changes and adaptations that different organs undergo, and this 

 will give rise to the science of Vegetable Morphology ; they may. 

 again, be regarded with reference to the uses of the various 

 organs — the way they perform their work of vegetation and 

 reproduction — and this view gives rise to Vegetable Physiology : 

 we may consider them with reference to their relations to each 

 other, comparing and classifying them according to resemblances 

 and differences, and this mode of viewing them results in the 

 science of Plant Classification, Vegetable Taxonomy or Syste- 

 matic Botany : once more, we may study them with reference t<> 

 their distribution in time and space, and this mode of study 

 gives rise to Paleontological and Geographical Botany respect- 

 ively ; lastly, we may regard them in the light of their economic 

 uses or their relations to human weal, which gives origin to the 



