CHAPTER VIII 



PLANT STRUCTURE AND ITS RELATION TO 

 HEALTHY PLANT GROWTH 



WITHIN recent years much stress has been laid on the 

 fact that, in a large measure, a plant's environment has 

 much to do with its vigor of growth and consequent health- 

 fulness. In earlier years, disease in plant tissue was con- 

 sidered something to be combated rather than prevented. 



Because of the intimate relation which exists between 

 the physiological development of the plant and its health, 

 every plant grower should have a knowledge of plant struc- 

 ture and those vital processes which contribute to its vigor. 

 These the botanist classes as plant morphology and plant 

 physiology. To get a clearer understanding of the rela- 

 tion of plant structure and growth to healthfulness in 

 plant tissue, they are discussed under the following topics : 



PLANT STRUCTURE 



When man was dependent on the power of the naked 

 eye to disclose plant structure, much mystery regarding 

 life prevailed. As yet, the question " What is life?" 

 remains unanswered, but scientific men have disclosed 

 many facts which have brought us nearer the solution of 

 the problem. The development of the compound micro- 

 scope resulted in many wonderful discoveries. Among 

 them is the fact that plant structure is a wonderful com- 



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