BRIEF STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT 

 AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. 



BOTANY may be subdivided into the following depart- 

 ments : Structural, Physiological, and Systematic Botany. 



Structural Botany has for its object the investigation of the 

 structure, mode of growth, and functions of the cells and vessels 

 that make up the plant. Organographi/ is a division of this 

 department that has special reference to the organs. Morphol- 

 ogy is properly a division of Structural Botany and notes the 

 changes that take place in the cells and tissues of plants. 



Physiological Botany takes into consideration the vital action 

 in the reception, preparation, and disposition of the nourishment 

 necessary to keep up the growth of the plant and to enable it to 

 perform the offices of flowering and fruiting. 



Systematic Botany embraces the classification of plants and 

 their arrangement under classes, with accurate descriptions in 

 scientific terms of those characters that determine the classifica- 

 tion of a plant. The Descriptive Botany in this book comes 

 under the head of Systematic Botany. Glossology^ which is a 

 division of Systematic Botany, has for its object the application 

 of appropriate names to the organs and parts of a vegetable, by 

 means of which a plant may be so described as to distinguish it 

 from every other individual except one of its own species. 



To the above may be added the Art or Practice of Botany, 

 which consists m applying the principles investigated under the 

 above heads to determining the class, order, etc., of an individ- 

 ual plant. It also includes the collecting, drying, labeling and 

 arranging of botanical specimens. 



