PART I 

 INTRODUCTION 



CHAPTER I 

 FUNDAMENTAL NOTIONS 



1. What is Botany? — The names of most sciences merely 

 tell what they are about. Thus the term zoology (from 

 the Greek, zoon^ animal, + logos, discourse) indicates 

 the study of animals, geology the study of the earth, 

 mineralogy the study of minerals. A similar name for the 

 study of plants would be phytology, from the Greek phyton 

 {(pvTov), a plant, and this word is, indeed, sometimes used. 

 But the generally accepted name, botany j tells more than 

 what the science is about; it points back to why mankind 

 ever came to study plants. The reason was because 

 plants are so intimately and fundamentally related to our 

 own lives that it becomes, not only interesting, but 

 absolutely essential to know about them, and under- 

 stand them. 



The word botany comes from a Greek word, hosko 

 {^b(TKoy), meaning, ''I eat." Botany, then, was originally 

 the science of things good to eat, and the term recognizes 

 the fact that for all of our food we are either directly or 



D. a HILL LIBRARY 

 North Carolina State College 



