A general system of botany, descriptive and analytical : in two parts ... / by Emm. Le Maout, J. Decaisne ; with 5500 figures by L. Steinheil and A. Riocreux ; translated from the original by Mrs. Hooker ... ; with additions, an appendix on the natural method, and a synopsis of the orders, by J.D. Hooker.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A general system of botany, descriptive and analytical : in two parts ... / by Emm. Le Maout, J. Decaisne ; with 5500 figures by L. Steinheil and A. Riocreux ; translated from the original by Mrs. Hooker ... ; with additions, an appendix on the natural method, and a synopsis of the orders, by J.D. Hooker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    17/1088
    INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Plaxts are organized living beings, void of feeling and voluntary motion ; they constitute the Vegetable Kingdom; and Botany, which is the natural history of the Vegetable Kingdom, treats of plants, firstly, individually; secondly, collective]3r; and thirdly, with regard to their uses to man. The whole subject may be con- sidered under thi'ee principal heads. The first includes Organography, which treats of the form and symmetry of the organs of plants ; Anatomy, of their interior structure; Physiology, of their func- tions; and Glossology, of the technical language employed to describe the organs and their modifications. The second includes Taxonomy, the classing of plants according to their affinities; Phytography, the description of species; and Nomenclature, the names given to species by botanists. The third includes Agriculture, Horticulture, Arboriculture, Medical and Economic Botany. The tissues of a plant present to the naked eye two very distinct elements, named jibro-vasctdar bundles and cellular tissue (parenchyma). The first consists of tenacious fibres gathered into bundles, or spread out like network, and forming the more solid portion of the plant; the second is a spongy, succulent substance filling the spaces between the fibres, being especially abundant in leaves and fleshy fruits, and constituting the softer portion of the plant. When magnified, these tissues present various structures, the components of which, called elementary organs, will be described in a future chapter. An ordinary plant consists of a cylindric body (fig. 1), more or less branched at its two extremities, and bearing laterally leaves of various forms, which are either scattered or grouped. The upper portion of this body, the stem (caidis, t), bears the leaves (f, f), and is green (at least in the young shoots); it branches from the ground upwards, diminishing in thickness as it branches. The lower portion, the root {radix, r), is leafless and subterranean, of a pale colour, and branches from above downwards, diminishing in thickness the deeper it penetrates the earth. Thus the stem and root are united where their girth is greatest, and are deve- loped in opposite directions; the former always tends to ascend, and the lower to B 1. Stock. Root and lower portion of stem.