THE PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS 



CHAPTER 1 



INTRODUCTION 



§ 1. What conception should a gardener form of a 

 vegetable organism? 



It is the business of the gardener and of the horticulturist to 

 cultivate plants. This term implies the guiding of the natural 

 development of a plant towards some special end. Por a 

 gardener ought to know how to make use of the natural pro- 

 cesses and of the development of the vegetable organism in such 

 a way as to realise as completely as possible the end which his 

 cultivation has in view. His endeavours may be of various kinds. 

 Li many cases he only tries to cultivate a plant in its normal 

 and natural form in some special locality. This is usually the 

 case in landscape-gardening or in the cultivation of plants 

 from warmer regions in our own climate. In other cases, which 

 we might call "true cultivation," the gardener seeks to make 

 a certain plant more useful for his purposes by increasing its 

 productivity and improving the quality of its fruits. This is 

 clearly the case in the culture of those plants which are grown 

 as vegetables, in which case, those organs which are used as 

 food are increased in size and number, and are considerably 

 improved in delicacy. Here the gardener interferes with the 

 normal development of a certain species, so as to increase 

 certain functions of the plant, and thus causes an increased 

 development of certain organs. In other cases, the time of 

 flowering or fruiting of a certain species is changed ; as, for 

 instance, when we wish to obtain spring flowers in winter 



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