INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY 
CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTORY 
1. Interest in plants. All people are in some way interested 
in plants, although not every one recognizes that he has this 
interest. We all live largely on plants or plant products, and 
most of the world’s workers earn their livelihood by some 
kind of industry which deals with plants or with their prod- 
ucts. A glance at the food on any well-furnished table will 
suggest to what an extent our daily bill of fare consists of 
vegetable substances. Our animal foods — meat, milk, eggs, 
fish, and the rest— are only plant foods transformed more 
or less directly into animal tissues or animal secretions. Our 
spices and flavors and most of our medicines are plant sub- 
stances or extracts. Part of our clothing is made from plant 
material. Our houses are often almost wholly constructed 
from timber, the furnishings are made from timber, and a 
home is scarcely complete without some growing plants, 
which assist in decorating the house and in giving pleasure 
to the occupants. 
How raw materials derived from plants underlie most of 
the world’s great industries cannot adequately be shown in a 
single paragraph. It is quite evident that the farmer, the 
gardener, the lumberman, the carpenter, the paper-maker, the 
cotton manufacturer, and the sail-maker are dealing with 
plants or with materials that are derived from them, but the 
multitudes of workers who make their living by sinking and 
operating oil wells, by refining petroleum, by mining and 
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