THE
ELEMENTS OF BOTANY
IVISON, BLAKEMAN, AND COMPANY
NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
Copyright,
By Asa Gray.
1887.
PREFACE.
This volume takes the place of the author's Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology, published over a quarter of a century ago. It is constructed on the same lines, and is a kind of new and much revised edition of that successful work. While in some respects more extended, it is also more concise and terse than its predecessor. This should the better fit it for its purpose now that competent teachers are common. They may in many cases develop paragraphs into lectures, and fully illustrate points which are barely, but it is hoped clearly, stated. Indeed, even for those without a teacher, it may be that a condensed is better than a diffuse exposition.
The book is adapted to the higher schools, "How Plants Grow and Behave" being the "Botany for Young People and Common Schools." It is intended to ground beginners in Structural Botany and the principles of vegetable life, mainly as concerns Flowering or Phanerogamous plants, with which botanical instruction should always begin; also to be a companion and interpreter to the Manuals and Floras by which the student threads his flowery way to a clear knowledge of the surrounding vegetable creation. Such a book, like a grammar, must needs abound in technical words, which thus arrayed may seem formidable; nevertheless, if rightly apprehended, this treatise should teach that the study of botany is not the learning of names and terms, but the acquisition of knowledge and ideas. No effort should be made to commit technical terms to memory. Any term used in describing a plant or explaining its structure can be looked up when it is wanted, and that should suffice. On the other hand, plans of structure, types, adaptations, and modifications, once understood, are not readily forgotten; and they give meaning and interest to the technical terms used in explaining them.
In these "Elements" naturally no mention has been made of certain terms and names which recent cryptogamically-minded botanists, with lack of proportion and just perspective, are endeavoring to introduce into phanerogamous botany, and which are not needed nor appropriate, even in more advanced works, for the adequate recognition of the ascertained analogies and homologies.
As this volume will be the grammar and dictionary to more than one or two Manuals, Floras, etc., the particular directions for procedure which were given in the "First Lessons" are now relegated to those works themselves, which in their new editions will provide the requisite explanations. On the other hand, in view of such extended use, the Glossary at the end of this book has been considerably enlarged. It will be found to include not merely the common terms of botanical description but also many which are unusual or obsolete; yet any of them may now and then be encountered. Moreover, no small number of the Latin and Greek words which form the whole or part of the commoner specific names are added to this Glossary, some in an Anglicized, others in their Latin form. This may be helpful to students with small Latin and less Greek, in catching the meaning of a botanical name or term.
The illustrations in this volume are largely increased in number. They are mostly from the hand of Isaac Sprague.
It happens that the title chosen for this book is that of the author's earliest publication, in the year 1836, of which copies are rarely seen; so that no inconvenience is likely to arise from the present use of the name.
ASA GRAY.
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
March, 1887.
CONTENTS.
- Page
- SECTION I. INTRODUCTORY 9
- SECTION II. FLAX AS A PATTERN PLANT 11
- Growth from the Seed, Organs of Vegetation 11
- Blossoming, Flower, &c. 14
- SECTION III. MORPHOLOGY OF SEEDLINGS 15
- Germinating Maples 15
- Cotyledons thickened, hypogæous in germination 18
- Store of Food external to the Embryo 20
- Cotyledons as to number 22
- Dicotyledonous and Polycotyledonous 23
- Monocotyledonous 24
- Simple-stemmed Plants 26
- SECTION IV. GROWTH FROM BUDS; BRANCHING 27
- Buds, situation and kinds 27
- Vigorous vegetation from strong Buds 28
- Arrangement of Branches 29
- Non-developed, Latent, and Accessory Buds 30
- Enumeration of kinds of Buds 31
- Definite and Indefinite growth; Deliquescent and Excurrent 31
- SECTION V. ROOTS 33
- Primary and Secondary. Contrast between Stem and Root 34
- Fibrous and Fleshy Roots; names of kinds 34
- Anomalous Roots. Epiphytic and Parasitic Plants 36
- Duration: Annuals, Biennials, Perennials 37
- SECTION VI. STEMS 38
- § 1. Leaves as Foliage 49
- Parts and Venation 50
- Forms as to general outline 52
- As to apex and particular outline 53
- As to lobing or division 56
- Compound, Perfoliate, and Equitant Leaves 57
- With no distinction of Petiole and Blade, Phyllodia, &c. 61
- § 2. Leaves of Special Conformation and Use 62
- Leaves for storage 62
- Leaves as bud-scales 63
- Spines 64
- and for Climbing 64
- Pitchers 64
- and Fly-traps 65
- § 3. Stipules 66
- § 4. The Arrangement of Leaves 67
- Phyllotaxy 67
- Of Alternate Leaves 69
- Of Opposite and Whorled Leaves 71
- Vernation or Præfoliation 71
- § 1. Position and Arrangement, Inflorescence 73
- Raceme 73
- Corymb, Umbel, Spike, Head 74
- Spadix, Catkin, or Ament 75
- Panicle: Determinate Inflorescence 76
- Cyme, Fascicle, Glomerule, Scorpioid or Helicoid Cymes 77
- Mixed Inflorescence 78
- § 2. Parts or Organs of the Flower 79
- Floral Envelopes: Perianth, Calyx, Corolla
- When perfect, complete, regular, or symmetrical 81
- Numerical Plan and Alternation of Organs 82
- Flowers are altered branches 83
- Unisexual or diclinous 85
- Incomplete, Irregular, and Unsymmetrical 86
- Flowers with Multiplication of Parts 88
- Flowers with Union of Parts: Coalescence 88
- Regular Forms 89
- Irregular Forms 90
- Papilionaceous 91
- Labiate 92
- and Ligulate Corollas 93
- Adnation or Consolidation 94
- Position of Flower or of its Parts 96
- Æstivation or Præfloration, its kinds 97
- Andrœcium 98
- Insertion, Relation, &c. 99
- Anther and Filament. Pollen 101
- § 1. Angiospermous or Ordinary Gynœcium 105
- Parts of a complete Pistil 105
- Carpels, Simple Pistil 106
- Compound Pistil with Cells and Axile Placentæ 107
- One-celled with Free Central Placenta 108
- One-celled with Parietal Placentæ 108
- § 2. Gymnospermous Gynœcium 109
- Their Parts, Insertion, and Kinds 111
- Torus, Stipe, Carpophore, Disk 113
- § 1. Adaptations for
- Close and Cross Fertilization, Anemophilous and Entomophilous 115
- Dichogamy and Heterogony 116
- Nature and kinds 118
- Berry, Pepo, Pome 119
- Drupe and Akene 120
- Cremocarp, Caryopsis, Nut 121
- Follicle, Legume, Capsule 122
- Capsular Dehiscence, Silique and Silicle 123
- Pyxis, Strobile or Cone 124
- Seed-coats and their appendages 125
- The Kernel or Nucleus, Embryo and its parts, Albumen 127
- § 1. Anatomical Structure and Growth 129
- Nature of Growth, Protoplasm 129
- Cells and Cell-walls. Cellular Structure or Tissue 130
- Strengthening Cells. Wood, Wood-cells, Vessels or Ducts 132
- § 2. Cell-contents 136
- Sap, Chlorophyll, Starch 136
- Crystals, Rhaphides 137
- § 3. Anatomy of Roots and Stems 138
- Endogenous and Exogenous Stems 139
- Particular structure of the latter 140
- Wood, Sapwood and Heart-wood. The living parts of a Tree 141
- § 4. Anatomy of Leaves 142
- Epidermis, Stomata or Breathing pores 143
- § 5. Plant Food and Assimilation 144
- § 6. Plant Work and Movement 149
- Movements in Cells or Cyclosis
- Vascular Cryptogams, Pteridophytes 156
- Horsetails (Equisetaceæ), Ferns 157
- Club-Mosses (Lycopodium), &c. 161
- Quillworts (Isoetes), Pillworts (Marsilia) 161
- Azolla. Cellular Cryptogams 162
- Bryophytes. Mosses (Musci) 163
- Liverworts (Hepaticæ) 164
- Thallophytes 165
- Characeæ 167
- Algæ, Seaweeds, &c. 168
- Lichenes or Lichens 171
- Fungi 172
- § 1. Kinds and Relationship 175
- Species, Varieties, Individuals 176
- Genera, Orders, Classes, &c. 177
- § 2. Names, Terms and Characters 178
- Nomenclature of Genera, Species, and Varieties 179
- Nomenclature of Orders, Classes, &c. Terminology 180
- § 3. System 181
- Artificial and Natural 182
- Synopsis of Series, Classes, &c. 183
- § 1. Collection or Herborization 184
- § 2. Herbarium 186
- § 3. Investigation and Determination of Plants 187
- § 4. Signs and Abbreviations 188