PART I 



THE PLANT AND ITS RELATIONS 



PLANTS AND ANIMALS COMPRISE THE PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. The plants make it 

 possible for the animals to live. The purpose of this volume is to discuss the plant products of the 

 farm ; and the first general subject that may receive attention is a discussion of the plant in its physio- 

 logical relations with its environment and with various practices of the cultivator. 



In its broadest application, agriculture is concerned with all plants that are grown by man, whether 

 for his own direct use ^n food and clothing and shelter, or for his animals, or for the gratification of his 

 aesthetic tastes. The kinds of plants that are grown for his own sustenance and protection and for his 

 animals are comparatively few, and they are the ones intended in this Cyclopedia. The number that are 

 grown to satisfy his artistic tastes are legion and they cannot be enumerated here ; these are recorded, 

 for this country, in the Editor's Cyclopedia of American Horticulture. All so-called horticultural plants 

 and crops, whether for food or ornament, are included in that work, and therefore the 

 fruits and vegetables are given only short and summary treatment in the present vol- 

 ume ; and for the same reason, discussions of horticultural practices are omitted here. 

 The vegetable kingdom is of marvelous diversity. Any observing person has only to 

 recall the range of his own observation to illustrate how true this is. From trees to 

 water-plants and ferns and mushrooms and sea- weeds is a far sweep 

 of organic forms. A glance at the contrasts of Figs. 1 to 3 enforce 

 this range of the vegetable kingdom. Some of its members, as the 

 bacteria, are even microscopic and not attached to the earth or 

 other support. Some of these minute forms have the power of 

 moving in their liquid habitation. The bacteria subsist on food organ- 

 ized by other plants or by animals, sometimes existing on the living 

 body, when they are said to be parasitic, sometimes on disorganizing 

 or decaying matter, when they are said to be saprophytic. Some 

 plants, of larger size and more complex structure, become individu- 

 ally attached to a host plant, practically taking root thereon, as the 

 mistletoe. Such plants may have foliage or green leaves, or they 

 may be blanched and unable to organize food for themselves. The 

 mushrooms and toadstools, representing the so-called higher fungi, 

 are saprophytic on decaying matter in the ground or in old logs 

 and litter. Most plants, however, are earth-parasites, fixed in the 

 soil, drawing their food from it and supplementing this supply from 

 the carbon of the air. Plants have become adapted to all places on 



Y" -njjM^ jMHY 5^^*^!lf the earth where life is possible, modified in duration, form, stature 



1 ^^ g^^ "^ p%s==^-^^ ^jj^ physiological action. They have also become adapted to the 



-«f ■taBf it / struggle for existence with each other, contending for space and 



light. Some are creepers on the ground ; others climbers on rocks 

 and on their fellows ; others tower above all competitors. Some are 

 adapted to shady places. Some inhabit the water; others have 

 escaped to the marshes, the plains and the hills. In the long pro- 

 cesses of time, one kind has given rise to other kinds. Some forms 

 have died and are lost. The plant creation is plastic, abounding 

 and living. This creation stands between man and the soil of the 

 earth. 



Bi a) 



The parts of one of the flowering 

 or seed-bearing plants. One of the 

 ornamental beans. 



