OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 
§ 1. The Plant hi General. 
6. The Plant, in its botanical sense, includes every being which has vegetable life , 
from the loftiest tree which adorns our landscapes, to the humblest moss which grows 
on its stem, to the mould or fungus which attacks our provisions, or the green scum 
that floats on our ponds. 
7. Every portion of a plant which has a distinct part or function to perform in the 
operations or phenomena of vegetable life is called an Organ. 
8. What constitutes vegetable life , and what are the functions of each organ, be- 
long to Vegetable Physiology ; the microscopical structure of the tissues composing 
the organs, to Vegetable Anatomy ; the composition of the substances of which they 
are formed, to Vegetable Chemistry ; under Descriptive and Systematic Botany we 
have chiefly to consider the forms of organs, that is, their Morphology , in the proper 
sense of the term, and their general structure so far as it affects classification and 
specific resemblances and differences. The terms we shall now define belong chiefly 
to the latter branch of Botany, as being that which is essential for the investigation 
of the Flora of a country. We shall add, however, a short chapter on "Vegetable 
Anatomy and Physiology, as a general knowledge of both imparts an additional in- 
terest to and facilitates the comparison of the characters and affinities of the plants 
examined. 
i). In the more perfect plants, their organs are comprised in the general terms 
Root, Stem, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit. Of these the three first, whose func- 
tion is to assist in the growth of t he plant, are Organs of Vegetation ; the flower and 
fruit, whose office is the formation of the seed, are the Organs of Reproduction. 
10. All these organs exist, in one shape or another, at some period of the life of 
most, if not all, flowering plants , technically called phcenogamous or phanerogamous 
plants; which all bear some kind of flower and fruit in the botanical sense of the 
term. In the lower classes, the ferns, mosses, fungi, moulds or mildews, seaweeds, 
etc., called by botanists cryptogamous plants , the flowers, the fruit, and not unfre- 
quently one or more of the organs of vegetation, are either wanting, or replaced by 
organs so different as to be hardly capable of bearing the same name. 
11. The observations comprised in the following pages refer exclusively to the 
flowering or phsenogamous plants. The study of the cryptogamous classes has now 
become so complicated as to form almost a separate science. They are therefore not 
included in these introductory observations, nor, with the exception of ferns, in the 
present Flora. 
12. Plants are 
Monocarpic, if they die after one flowering-season. These include Annuals, which 
flower in the same year in which they are raised from seed ; and Biennials, which only 
flower in the year following that in which they are sown. 
Caulocarpic , if, after flowering, the whole or part of the plant lives through the 
winter and produces fresh flowers another season. These include Herbaceous peren- 
nials, in which the greater part of the plant dies after flowering, leaving only a small 
perennial portion called the Stock or Caudex, close to or within the earth ; Under- 
shrubs , suffruticose or stiff rutescent plants, in which the flowering branches, forming a. 
considerable portion of the plant, die down after flowering, but leave a more or less 
prominent perennial and woody base; Shrubs ( frutescent or fruticose plants), in which 
the perennial woody part forms the greater part of the plant, but branches near the 
base, and does not much exceed a man’s height ; and Trees ( arboreous or arborescent 
plants ) when the height is greater and forms a woody trunk, scarcely branching from, 
the base. Bushes are low, much branched shrubs. 
13. The terms Monocarpic and Caulocarpic are but little used, but the other dis- 
tinctions enumerated above are universally attended to, although more useful to the 
gardener than to the botanist, who cannot always assign to them any precise character. 
Monocarpic plants, which require more thau two or three years to produce their 
flowers, will often, under certain circumstances, become herbaceous perennials, and are 
generally confounded with them. Truly perennial herbs will often commence flower- 
ing the first year, and have then all the appearance of annuals. Many tall shrubs 
