ii OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 



belong chiefly to the latter branch of Botany, as being that which is essential for the investigation 

 of the Flora of a country. We shall add, however, a short chapter on Vegetable Anatomy and 

 Physiology, as a general knowledge of both imparts an additional interest to and facilitates the 

 comparison of the characters and affinities of the plants examined. 



9. In the more perfect plants, their organs are comprised in the general terms Boot, 

 Stem, Iieaves, Flowers, and Fruit. Of these the three first, whose function is to 

 assist in the growth of the plant, are Organs of Vegetation ,- the flower and fruit, whose oHioe is 

 the formation of the seed, are the Orgavx of Eeproduction. 



10. All these organs exist, in one shape or another, at some period of the life of most, if not all, 

 /Joifprii!(/j)in)?f,s-, technically called j)ftffinof/fl»TOHs or plumerogamous plants : which all bear some 

 kind of 'flower and fruit in the botanical sense of the term. In the lower classes, the ferns, 

 mosses, fungi, moulds, or mildews, seaweeds, etc., called by botanists cry ptogamoiis plants,^ the 

 flowers, the fruit, and not unfrequently one or more of the organs of vegetation, are either 

 wanting, or replaced by organs so different as to be hardly capable of bearing the same name. 



11. The observations comprised in the following pages refer exclusively to the flowering or 

 phffinogamous plants. The study of the cryptogamous classes has now become so complicated as 

 to form almost a separate science. They are therefore not included in these introductory 

 observations, nor, with the exception of ferns, in the present Flora. 



12. Plants are 



Monocarpic, if they die after one flowering- season. These include AnnuaU, which flower m 

 the same year in which they are raised from seed ; and Biennials, which only flower in the year 

 following that in which they are sown. 



Caulocarpic, if, after flowering, the whole or part of the plant lives through the winter and 

 produces fresh flowers another season. These include Herbaceous perennials, in which the 

 greater part of the plant dies after flowering, leaving only a small perennial portion called the 

 Stock or Caudex, close to or within the earth ; Undershrubs, suffruticose or suffrutescent plants, 

 in which the flowering branches, forming a considerable portion of the plant, die down after 

 flowering, but leave a more or less prominent perennial and woody base ; shrubs (frutescent or 

 fruticose plants), in which the perennial woody part forms the greater part of the plant, but 

 branches near the base, and does not much exceed a man's height ; and Trees {Arboreous or 

 arborescent plants) when the height is greater and forms a woody trunk, scarcely branching from 

 the base. Bushes are low, much branched shrubs. 



13. The terms Monocarpic and Caulocarpic are but little used, but the other distinctions 

 enumerated above are universally attended to, although more useful to the gardener than to the 

 botanist, who cannot always assign to them any precise character. Monocarpic plants, which 

 require more than two or three years to produce their flowers, will often, under certain circum- 

 stances, become herbaceous perennials, and are generally confounded with them. Truly 

 perennial herbs will often commence flowering the first year, and have then all the appearance of 

 annuals. Many tall shrubs and trees lose annually their flowering branches like undershrubs. 

 And the same botanical species may be an annual or perennial, a herbaceous perennial or an 

 undershrub, an undcrshrub or a shrub, a shrub or a tree, according to climate, treatment, or 

 variety. 



14. Plants are usually terrestrial, that is, growing on earth, or aquatic, i.e. growing in wate»; 

 but sometimes they may be found attached by their roots to other plants, in which ease they are 

 epiphytes when simply growing upon other plants without penetrating into their tissue, parasites 

 when their roots penetrate into and derive more or less nutriment from the plant to which they 

 are attached. 



15. The simplest form of the perfect plant, the annual, consists of — 



(1) The Boot, or dascending axis, which grows downward from the stem, divides and spreads 

 in the earth or water, and absorbs food for the plant through the extremities of its branches. 



(2) The Stem, or ascending axis, which grows upwards from the root, branches and bears 

 first one or more leaves in succession, then one or more flowers, and finally one or more fruits. 

 It contains the tissues or other channels (217) by which the nutriment absorbed by the roots is 

 conveyed in the form oi sap (192) to the leaves or other points of the surface of the plant, to be 

 elaborated or digested (2i8), and afterwards redistributed over different parts of the plant for its 

 support and growth. 



(3) The Iieaves, usually flat, green, and horizontal, are variously arranged 'on Ihe stem and 

 its branches. They elaborate or digest (218) the nutriment brought to them through the stem 

 absorb carbonic acid gas from the air, exhaling the superfluous oxygen, and returning the' 

 assimilated sap to the stem. 



(4) The Flowers, usually placed at or towards the extremities of the branches. They are 

 destined to form the future seed. When perfect and complete they consist : 1st, of a pisUl in the 

 centre, consisting of one or more carpels; each containing the germ of one or more seeds ; 2nd of 

 one or more stamens outside the pistil, whose action is necessary to fertilize the pistil or enable it 

 to ripen its seed-; 3rd, of a perianth or floral envelope, which usually encloses the stamens and 

 pistil when young, and expands and exposes them to view when fully formed. This complete 



