CHAPTER VI 
SOME LESSONS IN BOTANY 
The person who is surrounded by plants and yet does 
not seek to learn the many interesting facts about them is 
missing a large amount of enjoyment which he might have 
without cost; for when we have gained an acquaintance 
with the plants about us, and the conditions and laws that 
control their life, every trip across the prairie or field, or 
through the forest, has new interest and shows new evidence 
that the plant world is indeed a world of miracles. 
All studies of plants involve applications of the science of 
botany, and in this chapter we present a few lessons that 
seem necessary for a thorough understanding of the other 
chapters on plants. Botany is merely the science, or the 
systematized knowledge, of the important things about 
plants. It teaches us the classification and names of plants, 
and the structure and function or use of all their parts, — 
as leaves, roots, stem, flower, and fruit. It enables us to 
understand the marvelous biography of the plant, — how 
it begins life, how it breathes, how it gets its food, assimilates 
it, and grows in stature, and how it reproduces its kind. 
Botany is a practical science. Farmers and gardeners 
succeed with their plants in the same measure that their 
practice conforms to the laws of botany. It teaches us the 
best method of cultivating each useful plant and making it 
yield the richest harvest, and it helps us to understand the 
laws of heredity so that we may produce varieties that shall 
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