INTRODUCTION. 



1. The Plant in Qeneral. 



6. The Plant, in its botanical sense, includes every being which has vegetahle life, 

 from the loftiest tree which adorns our landscapes, to the humblest moss which grows 

 on its stem, to the mould or fungus which attacks our provisions, or the green scum 

 that floats on our ponds. 



7. Every portion of a plant which has a distinct part or function to perform in the 

 operations or phenomena of vegetable life is called an Organ. 



8. What constitutes vegetahle life, and what are the functions of each organ, belong 

 to Vegetahle Physiology ; the microscopical structure of the tissues composing the 

 organs, to Vegetable Anatomy ; the composition of the substances of which they are 

 formed, to Vegetahle Chemistry ; under Descriptive and Systematic Botany we have 

 chiefly to consider the forms of organs, that is, their Morphology, in the proper sense 

 of the term, and their general structure so far as it affects classification anct specific 

 resemblances and differences. The terms we shall now define belong chiefly to the 

 latter branch of Botany, as bemg that which is essential for the investigation of the 

 Flora of a countiy. We shall add, however, a short chapter on Vegetable Anatomy 

 and Physiology, as a general knowledge of both imparts an additional interest to and 

 facilitates the comparison of the characters and affinities of the plants examined. 



9. In the more perfect plants, theu" organs are comprised in the general terms 

 Hoot, Stem, lUeaves, Flo-^ers, and Frnit. Of these the three first, whose func- 

 tion is to assist in the grov.'th of the plant, are Organs of Vegetation ; the flower and 

 fruit, whose office is the formation of tlie seed, are the Organs of Reproduction. 



10. All these organs exist, in one shape or another, at some period of the hfe of 

 most, if not all, floivering plants, teclmically called phctnogamous or pihanerogamous 

 plants ; which all bear some kind of flower and fruit in the botanical sense of the 

 term. In the lovrer classes, the ferns, mosses, fungi, moidds or mildews, seaweeds, 

 etc., called by botanists cryptogamovs 2)lants, the flowers, the fi'uit, and not unfre- 

 quently one or more of the organs of vegetation, are either wanting, or replaced by 

 organs so different as to be hardly capable of bearing the same name. 



11. The observations comprised in the following pages refer exclusively to the 

 flowering or pheenogamous plants. The stvidy of the ciyptogamous classes has now 

 become so complicated as to form almost a separate science. They are therefore not 

 included in these introductory observations, nor, with the exception of ferns, in the 

 present Flora. 



12. Plants are 



Monocarpic, if they die after one flowering-season. These include Annuals, which 

 flower in the same year in which they are raised from seed ; Q-TI^ Biennials, which only 

 flower in the year following that in which they are sown. 



Caxdocarpic, if, after flowering, tlie whole or part of the plant lives through the 

 winter and produces fresh flowers another season. These include Serhaceous peren- 

 nials, in wliich the greater part of the plant dies after flowering, leaving only a smaU 

 perennial portion called the Stock or Caudex, close to or within the earth ; Under- 

 shrubs, suff'ruticose or suffrutescent plants, in which the flowering branches, formuig a 

 considerable portion of the plant, die down after flowering, but leave a more or less 

 prominent perennial and woody base ; Shrubs {frutescent or fruticose plants) , in which 

 the perennial woody part forms the greater part of the plant, but branches near the 

 base, and does not much exceed a man's height ; and Trees {arboreous or arborescent 

 'plants) when the height is greater and forms a woody trunk, scarcely brandling fi'om 

 the base. Bushes are low, much branched shrubs. 



13. The terms Monocai'pic and Caulocarpic are but little used, but the other dis- 

 tinctions enumerated above are universally attended to, although more useful to the 

 gardener than to the botanist, wlio cannot always assign to them any precise character. 

 Monocarpic plants, which require more than two or three years to produce their 

 flowers, will often, under certain circvimstances, become herbaceous perennials, and are 

 generally confounded with them. Truly perennial herbs will often commence flower- 

 ing the first year, and have then all the appearance of annuals. Many taU shrubs 

 and trees lose annually their flowering branches like undershrubs. And the same 



