11 
OUTLINES OF 
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, 
belong 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 classifica- 
tion 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 interest to and facilitates the comparison of the characters and affinities 
of the plants examined. 
9. In the more perfect plants, their organs are comprised in the general terms 
Hoot, Stem, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit. Of these the three first, whose 
function is to assist in the growth of the 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 pluenogamous 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 there- 
fore not included in these introductory observations, nor, with the exception of 
ferns and their allies, 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 
perennials , 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 ; 
Tinder shrubs, suffruticose or stiff ruti scent plants, in which'the flowering branches, 
for min g 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 {ar- 
boreous 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 than two or three years to pro- 
duce their flowers, will often, under certain circumstances, become herbaceous 
perennials, and are generally confounded with them. Truly perennial herbs will 
often commence flowering the first year, and have then all the appearance of 
annuals. Many tall shrubs and trees lose annually their flowering branches like 
undershrubs. And the same botanical species may be an annual or a perennial, a 
herbaceous perennial or an undershrub, an undershrub or a shrub, a shrub or a tree, 
according to climate, treatment, or variety. 
14. Plants are usually terrestrial, that is, growing on earth, or aquatic, i.e., grow- 
ing in water ; but sometimes they may be found attached by their roots to other 
plants, in which case they are epiphytes when simply growing upon other plants 
