GENERAL BOTANY 



DIVISION I 

 MOEPHOLOGY 



MORPHOLOGY is the study of the external form and the internal 

 structure of plants and the ontogenetic development of the plant body 

 as a whole and of its members. In seeking to establish the signifi- 

 cance and the phylogenetic origin of the parts of plants and the causes 

 of the formative processes, it aims at a scientific understanding of the 

 forms of plants. 



1. The outer and inner construction of a living being can only be 

 understood when it is clearly realised that the animal or plant is a 

 living ORGANISM, i.e. a structure the main parts of which are not 

 meaningless appendages or members, but necessary ORGANS by the 

 harmonious co-operation of which the life of the whole is carried on. 

 Almost all the external parts of plants, and of animals also, are such 

 organs performing definite functions. They can, however, only play 

 their parts in the service of the whole organism when they are 

 appropriately constructed, or, in other words, when their structure 

 corresponds with or is adapted to their functions. Since the 

 various parts of the higher plants have diverse functions, it is easy to 

 see why the plant is composed of members very unlike in form and 

 structure. 



In order to fully understand the construction of an organism it is 

 further necessary to know the conditions under which it lives and to 

 be acquainted with its environment. Every plant, or animal, has 

 structural peculiarities which enable it to live only under certain 

 conditions of life which are not provided everywhere on the earth's 

 surface. The conditions of life, for example, are very different in 

 water from those in a desert, and water plants and desert plants are 

 very differently constructed. They can only succeed under their 

 usual conditions or such as are similar, and the desert plants would 

 not grow in water or the water plants under desert conditions. The 



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