Text-book of structural and physiological botany / by Otto W. Thomé and Alfred W. Bennett.

  • Thomé, Otto W. (Otto Wilhelm), 1840-1925.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Text-book of structural and physiological botany / by Otto W. Thomé and Alfred W. Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    animals and plants to the less perfect organisms belonging 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. 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, i.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 Anatomy of plants we understand a knowledge of their internal structure. The Physiology of plants is concerned with tlieir 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. Palceophytology, or Vegetable Palaeontology, makes us acquainted with the remains that still exist of the vegetation of earlier geological epochs. Classification 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 jilants 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 hapj^y or unfortunate acci- dent, or by the observation of an animal impelled by instinct to their use. The knowledge thus laboriously gained must