FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 



INTRODUCTION 



" Botany is the science which endeavors to answer every reason- 

 able question about plants." l 



THE plant is a living being, provided generally with 

 many parts, called organs-, which it uses for taking in nour- 

 ishment, for breathing, for protection against its enemies, 

 and for reproducing itself and so keeping up the numbers 

 of its own kind. The study of the individual plant there- 

 fore embraces a variety of topics, and the examination of 

 its relation to others introduces many more subjects. 



Morphology, or the science of form, structure, and so on, 

 deals with the plant without much regard to its character 

 as a living thing. Under this head are studied the forms 

 of plants and the various shapes or disguises which the 

 same sort of organ may take in different kinds of plants, 

 their gross structure, their microscopical structure, their 

 classification, and the successive stages in the develop- 

 ment of the individual plant. 



Plant Physiology treats of the plant in action, how it lives, 

 breathes, feeds, grows, and produces others like itself. 



Geographical Distribution, or botanical geography, dis- 

 cusses the range of the various kinds of plants over the 



1 Professor George L. Goodale. 



1 



