ELEMENTARY BOTANY 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



Plants, like animals, are living beings, and may be regarded 

 from two standpoints. In the first place, a plant may be con- 

 sidered as a living machine designed to execute certain work 

 and consisting of definite parts or organs, to each of which 

 there is allotted a particular office or function. After this 

 definition we naturally inquire how a plant lives, feeds, grows, 

 and multiplies, We then ask precisely what work is performed 

 by the various organs, such as the leaves, stems, and roots. 

 This aspect of botany is termed Physiology. Again, we may 

 look at a plant simply as a machine consisting of various parts 

 or members, which are arranged in a particular order and have 

 certain shapes. In fact, we learn the exact form of the 

 plant without taking notice of the work it does. This 

 department of botany is termed Morphology. Studied from 

 this point of view, we find that plants exhibit resemblances to, 

 and differences from, one another. For instance, a Fern seems 

 very unlike a Mushroom, and yet both are alike in so far as 

 neither of them possesses flowers. On the other hand, a tuft 

 of Grass and a Buttercup are widely different in appearance, 

 but at the same time they resemble each other insomuch as 

 they both produce true seeds from flowers. These points of 

 likeness and unlikeness among plants lead us to arrange the 

 latter into groups. This grouping is described as Classification, 

 and constitutes Systematic Botany. For our present purpose, 

 let us be content to divide plants into two great classes — 

 namely. Flowering Plants and Non-Flowering Plants. In the 

 first group are included all plants which bear seed-producing 

 flowers, whether they have showy blossoms such as those of 

 the Buttercup, Wallflower, and Dandelion, or blossoms which 

 we hardly notice, such as those of Grasses, Oaks, and Hazels. 

 Non-Flowering Plants bear no seed-producing flowers : amongst 



A 



