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ae animals and plants to the less perfect organisms belong 
- to these two kingdoms of nature, we come eventually, on the 
- boundaries of each, to organisms so small and so imperfectly 
developed that it is scarcely possible to pronounce an_ 
- opinion whether they are of animal or vegetable nature. 
‘The most superficial glance over the vegetable world shows. 
us that in both the external form and internal structure of 
_plants—the number of which has been estimated to amount | 
to 300,000—there exists such an endless diversity that we 
‘must content ourselves with describing the forms of most 
common occurrence, the most important laws of their internal 
-. ~. structure, life, and distribution, and the classification of the 
~ best known and most important plants. 
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Morphology, or the Comparative Anatomy of plants, em- 
braces’an acquaintance with their most important organs, 
and hence with their external form. By combining with this — 
the history of development of the separate organs, z.e. the 
mode in which they are produced, we are enabled to obtain 
~ a correct comprehension of, and to describe, the different 
parts of a plant. By the Avatomy of plants we understand- — 
a knowledge of their internal structure. The Physiology of © 
plants is concerned with their vital phenomena [and the dif- 
ferent functions of the various organs]. Botanical Geography 
treats of the distribution of plants over the surface of the 
globe. Paleophvtology, or Vegetable Paleontology, makesus 
acquainted with the remains that still exist of the vegetation 
of earlier geological epochs. C/asstfication has to do with 
the distribution of plants according to their characters [or 
relationship to one another]. Practical, or Applied Botany, 
finally, explains the useful or injurious properties of plants. 
In the earliest times the knowledge of plants was limited 
to those from which food was obtained, and to a few which 
afforded poisonous or curative substances, the properties of 
which had been ascertained by a happy or unfortunate acci-— 
dent, or by the observation of an animal impelled by instinct Be 
to their use. The knowledge thus laboriously gained must 
~~ 2 
