more develop into seedlings and new plants. All plant organs 

 may thus be primarily subdivided into : 



(1) Vegetative Organs which enable the plant to exist 



and maintain itself alive, such as the root, stem 

 and leaves. 



(2) Reproductive Organs the function of which is to pro- 



duce new plants, such as flowers. 



The root may be distinguished from the shoot by the fact 

 that the former never directly gives rise to leaves, or true re- 

 productive organs. 



Selection 5. Finally, it is necessary to 



of Types for p i n t out that the forms of plants and of their members 

 Description. ^ re a ^ mos ^ infinitely various and that, probably, no two 

 members of even one and the same plant are ever exactly 

 alike, although the differences between them are frequently 

 extremely minute. Hence it is obviously impossible to 

 separately define every form which exists. Generally speaking, 

 therefore, morphology aims at the selection of broad types 

 for description, which can be easily distinguished from one 

 another and each of which may be taken as fairly represent- 

 ing the most important characters of a large number of 

 subordinate forms between which the differences are very 

 slight and difficult to distinguish. At the same time, it must 

 be noted that these typical forms are generally connected by 

 intermediate forms, through which one type passes over by 

 almost insensible gradations into another, and that, therefore, 

 although the descriptions of the types apply to a large propor- 

 tion of all existing forms, there are always some forms for 

 which it is not easy to decide which typical description is most 

 suitable At the same time this is no practical disadvantage, 

 for forms which are precisely intermediate, may, with equal 

 justice, be referred to either of the two types between which 

 they stand, while all others are referred to the types which 

 thev resemble most closelv. 



