BOTANY 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



CONTINUOUS change is necessary in order that the material universe 

 may remain in its present condition. Since the amount of matter is 

 constant, it follows that the particles of matter must be capable of 

 dissociation and recombination, otherwise, sooner or later, a stable 

 condition is reached which is incompatible with the existence of life. 

 Living organisms, plants and animals, are the most important agents 

 upon the earth in this redistribution of matter. The inert, inorganic 

 substances are decomposed through the activity of living organisms, 

 the components being united with others into the innumerable com- 

 pounds of which living substances are composed. The organic com- 

 pounds in turn undergo repeated changes within the organism, which 

 may itself serve as food for others. The simpler compounds result- 

 ing from the chemical changes within the organism may remain inert, 

 like the masses of limestone developed from the skeletons of coral 

 polyps, or the flinty deposits left by the accumulated shells of 

 Diatoms ; or, like carbon-dioxide, they may again be utilized as food 

 for plants. 



It is the province of biology, in its broadest sense, to study the 

 part played by plants and animals in the economy of nature their 

 relation to each other and to the inorganic world. 



Organic and Inorganic Bodies. It is not possible to draw a hard and 

 fast line between the so-called "organic" and " inorganic " bodies. 

 While many of the substances characteristic of living bodies have as 

 yet baffled the chemist's skill, he has, nevertheless, succeeded in 

 manufacturing in the laboratory so many " organic " compounds, e.g. 

 uric acid, glucose, sugars, vegetable alkaloids like coniin and others, 

 oil of bitter almonds and other essential oils, etc., that it is no longer 

 held that these substances can be formed only through the agency of 

 the supposed vital force. 



Nevertheless, all living things are, as such, radically different in 

 certain respects from all inanimate forms of matter. They are 

 always, to a certain extent, capable of spontaneous movement ; they 



