MANUAL OF BOTANY 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



The various bodies which are situated on the surface of the 

 earth, or combined so as to form its substance, are naturally 

 arranged, both by the common observer and scientific investi- 

 gator, in three great divisions, called, respectively, the Animal, 

 Vegetable, and Mineral Kmgdoms ; and as those comprised in 

 the two former are possessed of life, they form the Organic crea- 

 tion ; while those of the latter, not being endowed with life, 

 constitute the Inorganic creation. It is our province in this 

 work to treat of the lower members of the organic world, called 

 Plants or Vegetables. The science which has this for its object 

 is termed Botany, from the Greek word /Sotqi/i;, signifying herb 

 or grass. 



Depabtments of Botany. — Botany in its extended sense 

 embraces everything that has reference to plants, either in a 

 living or fossil state. It investigates their nature, their internal 

 structure, their oiitward forms ; the laws by which they are 

 enabled to grow and propagate themselves ; and their relations to 

 one another, and to the other bodies by which they are surrounded. 

 As a science, therefore, it is of vast extent, and one which re- 

 quh'es for its successful prosecution the most careful and system- 

 atic study. "We may divide it into several departments, which 

 can be examined separately. We may regard especially the 

 peculiarities of outward form which plants present; some of 

 extreme simplicity and of microscopic dimensions, globular or 

 cylindrical in shape, and consisting of only a single vegetable 

 cell, with no differentiation of parts ; others strings of cells, 

 others flat plates, others of considerable substance, showing 

 various parts, each with its own individuality. Such a section 

 of the subject is known as Morphology. "We may again study 



VOL. I. B 



