ELEMENTS OF BOTANY 
INTRODUCTION 
The Plant is a living being, provided generally with 
-many parts, called organs, which it uses for taking in 
nourishment, for breathing, for protection against its ene- 
mies, and for reproducing itself and so keeping up the 
numbers of its own kind. The study of the individual 
plant therefore embraces a variety of topics, and the 
examination of its relation to others introduces many 
more subjects. 
Morphology, or the science of form, structure, and so 
on, deals with the plant without much regard to its char- 
acter as a living thing. Under this head are studied the 
forms of plants and the various shapes or disguises which 
the same sort of organ may take in different kinds of 
plants, their gross structure, their microscopical struc- 
ture, their classification, and the successive stages in the 
development of the individual plant. 
Plant Physiology treats of the plant in action, how it lives, 
breathes, feeds, grows, and produces others like itself. 
Geographical Distribution, or botanical geography, dis- 
cusses the range of the various kinds of plants over the 
earth’s surface. Another subdivision of botany, usually 
studied along with geology, describes the history of plant 
1 
