Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses

Classification; Liverworts, _Madotheca_; Classification of Liverworts; Mosses, _Funaria_; Classification of Mosses.

CHAPTER XII.--PTERIDOPHYTES 102

Bryophytes and Pteridophytes; Germination and Prothallium; Structure of Maiden-hair Fern.

CHAPTER XIII.--CLASSIFICATION OF PTERIDOPHYTES 116

Ferns; Horse-tails; Club Mosses.

CHAPTER XIV.--SPERMAPHYTES 128

General Characteristics; Gymnosperms and Angiosperms, Scotch-pine; Classification of Gymnosperms.

CHAPTER XV.--SPERMAPHYTES (_Continued_) 143

Angiosperms; Flowers of Angiosperms; Classification of Angiosperms; Monocotyledons, Structure of _Erythronium_.

CHAPTER XVI.--CLASSIFICATION OF MONOCOTYLEDONS 153

_Liliifloræ_; _Enantioblastæ_; _Spadicifloræ_; _Glumaceæ_; _Scitamineæ_; _Gynandræ_, _Helobiæ_.

CHAPTER XVII.--DICOTYLEDONS 170

General Characteristics; Structure of Shepherd's-purse.

CHAPTER XVIII.--CLASSIFICATION OF DICOTYLEDONS 181

_Choripetalæ_: _Iulifloræ_; _Centrospermæ_; _Aphanocyclæ_; _Eucyclæ_; _Tricoccæ_; _Calycifloræ_.

CHAPTER XIX.--CLASSIFICATION OF DICOTYLEDONS (_Continued_) 210

_Sympetalæ_: _Isocarpæ_, _Bicornes_, _Primulinæ_, _Diospyrinæ_; _Anisocarpæ_, _Tubifloræ_, _Labiatifloræ_, _Contortæ_, _Campanulinæ_, _Aggregatæ_.

CHAPTER XX.--FERTILIZATION OF FLOWERS 225

CHAPTER XXI.--HISTOLOGICAL METHODS 230

Nuclear Division in Wild Onion; Methods of Fixing, Staining, and Mounting Permanent Preparations; Reference Books.

INDEX 237

BOTANY.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

All matter is composed of certain constituents (about seventy are at present known), which, so far as the chemist is concerned, are indivisible, and are known as elements.

Of the innumerable combinations of these elements, two general classes may be recognized, organic and inorganic bodies. While it is impossible, owing to the dependence of all organized matter upon inorganic matter, to give an absolute definition, we at once recognize the peculiarities of organic or living bodies as distinguished from inorganic or non-living ones. All living bodies feed, grow, and reproduce, these acts being the result of the action of forces resident within the organism. Inorganic bodies, on the other hand, remain, as a rule, unchanged so long as they are not acted upon by external forces.

All living organisms are dependent for existence upon inorganic matter, and sooner or later return these elements to the sources whence they came. Thus, a plant extracts from the earth and air certain inorganic compounds which are converted by the activity of the plant into a part of its own substance, becoming thus incorporated into a living organism. After the plant dies, however, it undergoes decomposition, and the elements are returned again to the earth and atmosphere from which they were taken.

Investigation has shown that living bodies contain comparatively few elements, but these are combined into extraordinarily complex compounds. The following elements appear to be essential to all living bodies: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, potassium. Besides these there are several others usually present, but not apparently essential to all organisms. These include phosphorus, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, chlorine, silicon.