.BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS CHAP. 



Morphology. That portion of the study of living things 

 which deals with the shape and structure of the various organs 

 of plants or animals is termed morphology. Morphology is 

 divided into anatomy, which means, as far as our lessons are 

 concerned, the structure of the plant to the extent it can be 

 made out by the aid of a knife, the naked eye, or by the aid of 

 a simple lens ; and histology, or the minute structure of the 

 various organs which require the use of the compound micro- 

 scope for their complete study. 



Physiology. This division of botany is concerned with 

 those functions which, taken together, constitute the life of the 

 plant. Just as morphology is concerned with what plants are, 

 so "physiology deals with what they do. There are several 

 divisions into which physiology can be divided, for example : 



1. The Physiology of Nutrition, or how a plant obtains its 

 food, together with the changes that go on in the food due to 

 the activity of the living substance of the plant, so that the food 

 may become part of it, or become converted into sugar, starch, 

 cellulose, and proteids. 



2. The Physiology of Movement, or how plants move. That 

 various parts of plants can move is shown by the opening and 

 closing of flowers, the so-called sleep of leaves, and the changes 

 in the position of stems, such as the twining stems of the hop, 

 and the tendrils of the vine. This department of physiology 

 tries to answer all questions relating to the causes that produce 

 the various movements of plants, and how these movements 

 are affected by the action of light, heat, and moisture. 



3. The Physiology of Reproduction, or how plants reproduce 

 " their kind. Some plants reproduce by means of bulbs and 



tubers. This kind of reproduction is termed vegetative, 

 because the parts of the plant that enter into the process are 

 only portions produced by the vegetative functions of the plant. 

 In far the greater number of cases, plants reproduce their 

 kind by means of seeds. This kind of reproduction is termed 

 7 sexual. 



Classification. The province of classification is to point 

 out the relationship between different plants. Many methods 

 of classification have been devised, and many of them are known 

 as artificial systems. 



One of the best known is that of Linnaeus, which is based on 



