INTRODUCTION 5 



Each of these two kingdoms has its own separate 

 science or study and Botany is the name given to 

 the science of the vegetable kingdom. It means the 

 study of plants, their shape, structure, mode of living 

 and of reproduction, and relationship one to another. 



By far the greater number of what we ordinarily 

 think of as plants have flowers and seeds. But there 

 are some that have not, and yet are every bit as much 

 plants. Ferns, for instance, have no flowers, nor 

 have the Selaginellas and Mosses which grow com- 

 monly among the ferns of our 'gardens and in damp 

 cool places on the mountains of India. There are 

 plants too of very much simpler nature. We may 

 often see on the water of our tanks and stagnant rivers 

 floating lumps of green matter, which are composed 

 of numerous very small plants that have no flowers 

 nor even leaves. Other plants of the same kind form 

 the slimy green matter which we nearly always find 

 where walls or stones are constantly moist, as on the 

 side of a well or standpipe or under the drain pipe 

 of a house. Some minute plants grow so plentifully 

 in temple tanks that they make the water appear quite 

 green. There are yet other plants which are not 

 green, and some so small that they can be seen only 

 with the aid of a very powerful microscope, but on 

 account of the nature and mode of life are classed in 

 the vegetable kingdom. But none of these possess 

 flowers or seeds. 



The whole vegetable kingdom is therefore divided 

 into two main groups the flowering plants and the 

 flowerless. In the first group are all our ordinary 

 trees, shrubs, garden flowers and field crops, such 



