The Elements of Botany, For Beginners and For Schools

Section I. INTRODUCTORY.

3. Plants may be studied as to their structure and parts. This is Structural Botany, or Organography. The study of the organs or parts of plants in regard to the different forms and different uses which the same kind of organ may assume,—the comparison, for instance, of a flower-leaf or a bud-scale with a common leaf,—is Vegetable Morphology, or Morphological Botany. The study of the minute structure of the parts, to learn by the microscope what they themselves are formed of, is Vegetable Anatomy, or Histology; in other words, it is Microscopical Structural Botany. The study of the actions of plants or of their parts, of the ways in which a plant lives, grows, and acts, is the province of Physiological Botany, or Vegetable Physiology.

4. This book is to teach the outlines of Structural Botany and of the simpler parts of the physiology of plants, that it may be known how plants are constructed and adapted to their surroundings, and how they live, move, propagate, and have their being in an existence no less real, although more simple, than that of the animal creation which they support. Particularly, this book is to teach the principles of the structure and relationships of plants, the nature and names of their parts and their modifications, and so to prepare for the study of Systematic Botany; in which the learner may ascertain the name and the place in the system of any or all of the ordinary plants within reach, whether wild or cultivated. And in ascertaining the name of any plant, the student, if rightly taught, will come to know all about its general or particular structure, rank, and relationship to other plants.

5. The vegetable kingdom is so vast and various, and the difference is so wide between ordinary trees, shrubs, and herbs on the one hand, and mosses, moulds, and such like on the other, that it is hardly possible to frame an intelligible account of plants as a whole without contradictions or misstatements, or endless and troublesome qualifications. If we say that plants come from seeds, bear flowers, and have roots, stems, and leaves, this is not true of the lower orders. It is best for the beginner, therefore, to treat of the higher orders of plants by themselves, without particular reference to the lower.

6. Let it be understood, accordingly, that there is a higher and a lower series of plants; namely:—

Phanerogamous Plants, which come from seed and bear flowers, essentially stamens and pistils, through the co-operation of which seed is produced. For shortness, these are commonly called Phanerogams, or Phænogams, or by the equivalent English name of Flowering Plants.[1]

Cryptogamous Plants, or Cryptogams, come from minute bodies, which answer to seeds, but are of much simpler structure, and such plants have not stamens and pistils. Therefore they are called in English Flowerless Plants. Such are Ferns, Mosses, Algæ or Seaweeds, Fungi, etc. These sorts have each to be studied separately, for each class or order has a plan of its own.

7. But Phanerogamous, or Flowering, Plants are all constructed on one plan, or type. That is, taking almost any ordinary herb, shrub, or tree for a pattern, it will exemplify the whole series: the parts of one plant answer to the parts of any other, with only certain differences in particulars. And the occupation and the delight of the scientific botanist is in tracing out this common plan, in detecting the likenesses under all the diversities, and in noting the meaning of these manifold diversities. So the attentive study of any one plant, from its growth out of the seed to the flowering and fruiting state and the production of seed like to that from which the plant grew, would not only give a correct general idea of the structure, growth, and characteristics of Flowering Plants in general, but also serve as a pattern or standard of comparison. Some plants will serve this purpose of a pattern much better than others. A proper pattern will be one that is perfect in the sense of having all the principal parts of a phanerogamous plant, and simple and regular in having these parts free from complications or disguises. The common Flax-plant may very well serve this purpose. Being an annual, it has the advantage of being easily raised and carried in a short time through its circle of existence, from seedling to fruit and seed.

Section II. FLAX AS A PATTERN PLANT.

8. Growth from the Seed. Phanerogamous plants grow from seed, and their flowers are destined to the production of seeds. A seed has a rudimentary plant ready formed in it,—sometimes with the two most essential parts, i. e. stem and leaf, plainly discernible; sometimes with no obvious distinction of organs until germination begins. This incipient plant is called an Embryo.

9. In this section the Flax-plant is taken as a specimen, or type, and the development and history of common plants in general is illustrated by it. In flax-seed the embryo nearly fills the coats, but not quite. There is a small deposit of nourishment between the seed-coat and the embryo: this may for the present be left out of the account. This embryo consists of a pair of leaves, pressed together face to face, and attached to an extremely short stem. (Fig. 2-4.) In this rudimentary condition the real nature of the parts is not at once apparent; but when the seed grows they promptly reveal their character,—as the accompanying figures (Fig. 5-7) show.

10. Before the nature of these parts in the seed was altogether understood, technical names were given to them, which are still in use. These initial leaves were named Cotyledons. The initial stem on which they stand was called the Radicle. That was because it gives rise to the first root; but, as it is really the beginning of the stem, and because it is the stem that produces the root and not the root that produces the stem, it is better to name it the Caulicle. Recently it has been named Hypocotyle; which signifies something below the cotyledons, without pronouncing what its nature is.

11. On committing these seeds to moist and warm soil they soon sprout, i. e. germinate. The very short stem-part of the embryo is the first to grow. It lengthens, protrudes its root-end; this turns downward, if not already pointing in that direction, and while it is lengthening a root forms at its point and grows downward into the ground. This root continues to grow on from its lower end, and thus insinuates itself and penetrates into the soil. The stem meanwhile is adding to its length throughout; it erects itself, and, seeking the light, brings the seed up out of the ground. The materials for this growth have been supplied by the cotyledons or seed-leaves, still in the seed: it was the store of nourishing material they held which gave them their thickish shape, so unlike that of ordinary leaves. Now, relieved of a part of this store of food, which has formed the growth by which they have been raised into the air and light, they appropriate the remainder to their own growth. In enlarging they open and throw off the seed-husk; they expand, diverge into a horizontal position, turn green, and thus become a pair of evident leaves, the first foliage of a tiny plant. This seedling, although diminutive and most simple, possesses and puts into use, all the Organs of Vegetation, namely, root, stem, and leaves, each in its proper element,—the root in the soil, the stem rising out of it, the leaves in the light and open air. It now draws in moisture and some food-materials from the soil by its root, conveys this through the stem into the leaves, where these materials, along with other crude food which these imbibe from the air, are assimilated into vegetable matter, i. e. into the material for further growth.

12. Further Growth soon proceeds to the formation of new parts,—downward in the production of more root, or of branches of the main root, upward in the development of more stem and leaves. That from which a stem with its leaves is continued, or a new stem (i. e. branch) originated, is a Bud. The most conspicuous and familiar buds are those of most shrubs and trees, bearing buds formed in summer or autumn, to grow the following spring. But every such point for new growth may equally bear the name. When there is such a bud between the cotyledons in the seed or seedling it is called the Plumule. This is conspicuous enough in a bean (Fig. 29.), where the young leaf of the new growth looks like a little plume, whence the name, plumule. In flax-seed this is very minute indeed, but is discernible with a magnifier, and in the seedling it shows itself distinctly (Fig. 5, 6, 7).

13. As it grows it shapes itself into a second pair of leaves, which of course rests on a second joint of stem, although in this instance that remains too short to be well seen. Upon its summit appears the third pair of leaves, soon to be raised upon its proper joint of stem; the next leaf is single, and is carried up still further upon its supporting joint of stem; and so on. The root, meanwhile, continues to grow underground, not joint after joint, but continuously, from its lower end; and commonly it before long multiplies itself by branches, which lengthen by the same continuous growth. But stems are built up by a succession of leaf-bearing growths, such as are strongly marked in a reed or corn-stalk, and less so in such an herb as Flax. The word "joint" is ambiguous: it may mean either the portion between successive leaves, or their junction, where the leaves are attached. For precision, therefore, the place where the leaf or leaves are borne is called a Node, and the naked interval between two nodes, an Internode.

15. Blossoming. In Flax the flowers make their appearance at the end of the stem and branches. The growth, which otherwise might continue them farther or indefinitely, now takes the form of blossom, and is subservient to the production of seed.

16. The Flower of Flax consists, first, of five small green leaves, crowded into a circle: this is the Calyx, or flower-cup. When its separate leaves are referred to they are called Sepals, a name which distinguishes them from foliage-leaves on the one hand, and from petals on the other. Then come five delicate and colored leaves (in the Flax, blue), which form the Corolla, and its leaves are Petals; then a circle of organs, in which all likeness to leaves is lost, consisting of slender stalks with a knob at summit, the Stamens; and lastly, in the centre, the rounded body, which becomes a pod, surmounted by five slender or stalk-like bodies. This, all together, is the Pistil. The lower part of it, which is to contain the seeds, is the Ovary; the slender organs surmounting this are Styles; the knob borne on the apex of each style is a Stigma. Going back to the stamens, these are of two parts, viz. the stalk, called Filament, and the body it bears, the Anther. Anthers are filled with Pollen, a powdery substance made up of minute grains.

17. The pollen shed from the anthers when they open falls upon or is conveyed to the stigmas; then the pollen-grains set up a kind of growth (to be discerned only by aid of a good microscope), which penetrates the style: this growth takes the form of a thread more delicate than the finest spider's web, and reaches the bodies which are to become seeds (Ovules they are called until this change occurs); these, touched by this influence, are incited to a new growth within, which becomes an embryo. So, as the ovary ripens into the seed-pod or capsule (Fig. 1, etc.) containing seeds, each seed enclosing a rudimentary new plantlet, the round of this vegetable existence is completed.

Section III. MORPHOLOGY OF SEEDLINGS.

19. Germinating Maples are excellent to begin with, the parts being so much larger than in Flax that a common magnifying glass, although convenient, is hardly necessary. The only disadvantage is that fresh seeds are not readily to be had at all seasons.

21. Red Maple seeds are ripe and ready to germinate at the beginning of summer, and are therefore more convenient for study. The cotyledons are crumpled in the seed, and not easy to straighten out until they unfold themselves in germination. The story of their development into the seedling is told by the accompanying Fig. 14-20; and that of Sugar Maple is closely similar. No plumule or bud appears in the embryo of these two Maples until the seed-leaves have nearly attained their full growth and are acting as foliage-leaves, and until a root is formed below. There is no great store of nourishment in these thin cotyledons; so further growth has to wait until the root and seed-leaves have collected and elaborated sufficient material for the formation of the second internode and its pair of leaves, which lending their help the third pair is more promptly produced, and so on.

22. Some change in the plan comes with the Silver or Soft White Maple. (Fig. 21-25). This blossoms in earliest spring, and it drops its large and ripened keys only a few weeks later. Its cotyledons have not at all the appearance of leaves; they are short and broad, and (as there is no room to be saved by folding) they are straight, except a small fold at the top,—a vestige of the habit of Maples in general. Their unusual thickness is due to the large store of nutritive matter they contain, and this prevents their developing into actual leaves. Correspondingly, their caulicle does not lengthen to elevate them above the surface of the soil; the growth below the cotyledons is nearly all of root. It is the little plumule or bud between them which makes the upward growth, and which, being well fed by the cotyledons, rapidly develops the next pair of leaves and raises them upon a long internode, and so on. The cotyledons all the while remain below, in the husk of the fruit and seed, and perish when they have yielded up the store of food which they contained.

23. So, even in plants so much alike as Maples, there is considerable difference in the amount of food stored up in the cotyledons by which the growth is to be made; and there are corresponding differences in the germination. The larger the supply to draw upon, the stronger the growth, and the quicker the formation of root below and of stem and leaves above. This deposit of food thickens the cotyledons, and renders them less and less leaf-like in proportion to its amount.

24. Examples of Embryos with thickened Cotyledons. In the Pumpkin and Squash (Fig. 26, 27), the cotyledons are well supplied with nourishing matter, as their sweet taste demonstrates. Still, they are flat and not very thick. In germination this store is promptly utilized in the development of the caulicle to twenty or thirty times its length in the seed, and to corresponding thickness, in the formation of a cluster of roots at its lower end, and the early production of the incipient plumule; also in their own growth into efficient green leaves. The case of our common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris, Fig. 28-30) is nearly the same, except that the cotyledons are much more gorged; so that, although carried up into the air and light upon the lengthening caulicle, and there acquiring a green color, they never expand into useful leaves. Instead of this, they nourish into rapid growth the plumule, which is plainly visible in the seed, as a pair of incipient leaves; and these form the first actual foliage.

25. Very similar is the germination of the Beech (Fig. 31-33), except that the caulicle lengthens less, hardly raising the cotyledons out of the ground. Nothing would be gained by elevating them, as they never grow out into efficient leaves; but the joint of stem belonging to the plumule lengthens well, carrying up its pair of real foliage-leaves.

26. It is nearly the same in the Bean of the Old World (Vicia Faba, here called Horse Bean and Windsor Bean): the caulicle lengthens very little, does not undertake to elevate the heavy seed, which is left below or upon the surface of the soil, the flat but thick cotyledons remaining in it, and supplying food for the growth of the root below and the plumule above. In its near relative, the Pea (Fig. 34, 35), this use of cotyledons for storage only is most completely carried out. For they are thickened to the utmost, even into hemispheres; the caulicle does not lengthen at all; merely sends out roots from the lower end, and develops its strong plumule from the upper, the seed remaining unmoved underground. That is, in technical language, the germination is hypogæous.

27. There is sufficient nourishment in the cotyledons of a pea to make a very considerable growth before any actual foliage is required. So it is the stem-portion of the plumule which is at first conspicuous and strong-growing. Here, as seen in Fig. 35, its lower nodes bear each a useless leaf-scale instead of an efficient leaf, and only the later ones bear leaves fitted for foliage.

28. This hypogæous germination is exemplified on a larger scale by the Oak (Fig. 36, 37) and Horse-chestnut (Fig. 38, 39); but in these the downward growth is wholly a stout tap-root. It is not the caulicle; for this lengthens hardly any. Indeed, the earliest growth which carries the very short caulicle out of the shell comes from the formation of foot-stalks to the cotyledons; above these develops the strong plumule, below grows the stout root. The growth is at first entirely, for a long time mainly, at the expense of the great store of food in the cotyledons. These, after serving their purpose, decay and fall away.

30. Germinating Embryo supplied by its own Store of Nourishment, i. e. the store in the cotyledons. This is so in all the illustrations thus far, essentially so even in the Flax. This nourishment was supplied by the mother plant to the ovule and seed, and thence taken into the embryo during its growth. Such embryos, filling the whole seed, are comparatively large and strong, and vigorous in germination in proportion to the amount of their growth while connected with the parent plant.

31. Germinating Embryo supplied from a Deposit outside of Itself. This is as common as the other mode; and it occurs in all degrees. Some seeds have very little of this deposit, but a comparatively large embryo, with its parts more or less developed and recognizable. In others this deposit forms the main bulk of the seed, and the embryo is small or minute, and comparatively rudimentary. The following illustrations exemplify these various grades. When an embryo in a seed is thus surrounded by a white substance, it was natural to liken the latter to the white of an egg, and the embryo or germ to the yolk. So the matter around or by the side of the embryo was called the Albumen, i. e. the white of the seed. The analogy is not very good; and to avoid ambiguity some botanists call it the Endosperm. As that means in English merely the inwards of a seed, the new name is little better than the old one; and, since we do not change names in botany except when it cannot be avoided, this name of albumen is generally kept up. A seed with such a deposit is albuminous, one with none is exalbuminous.

32. The Albumen forms the main bulk of the seed in wheat, maize, rice, buckwheat, and the like. It is the floury part of the seed. Also of the cocoa-nut, of coffee (where it is dense and hard), etc.; while in peas, beans, almonds, and in most edible nuts, the store of food, although essentially the same in nature and in use, is in the embryo itself, and therefore is not counted as anything to be separately named. In both forms this concentrated food for the germinating plant is food also for man and for animals.

33. For an albuminous seed with a well-developed embryo, the common Morning Glory (Ipomœa purpurea, Fig. 40-43) is a convenient example, being easy and prompt to grow, and having all the parts well apparent. The seeds (duly soaked for examination) and the germination should be compared with those of Sugar and Red Maple (19-21). The only essential difference is that here the embryo is surrounded by and crumpled up in the albumen. This substance, which is pulpy or mucilaginous in fresh and young seeds, hardens as the seed ripens, but becomes again pulpy in germination; and, as it liquefies, the thin cotyledons absorb it by their whole surface. It supplements the nutritive matter contained in the embryo. Both together form no large store, but sufficient for establishing the seedling, with tiny root, stem, and pair of leaves for initiating its independent growth; which in due time proceeds as in Fig. 44, 45.

34. Smaller embryos, less developed in the seed, are more dependent upon the extraneous supply of food. The figures 46-53 illustrate four grades in this respect. The smallest, that of the Peony, is still large enough to be seen with a hand magnifying glass, and even its cotyledons may be discerned by the aid of a simple stage microscope.

35. The broad cotyledons of Mirabilis, or Four-o'clock (Fig. 52, 53), with the slender caulicle almost encircle and enclose the floury albumen, instead of being enclosed in it, as in the other illustrations. Evidently here the germinating embryo is principally fed by one of the leaf-like cotyledons, the other being out of contact with the supply. In the embryo of Abronia (Fig. 54, 55), a near relative of Mirabilis, there is a singular modification; one cotyledon is almost wanting, being reduced to a rudiment, leaving it for the other to do the work. This leads to the question of the

36. Number of Cotyledons. In all the preceding illustrations, the embryo, however different in shape and degree of development, is evidently constructed upon one and the same plan, namely, that of two leaves on a caulicle or initial stem,—a plan which is obvious even when one cotyledon becomes very much smaller than the other, as in the rare instance of Abronia (Fig. 54, 55). In other words, the embryos so far examined are all

37. Dicotyledonous, that is, two-cotyledoned. Plants which are thus similar in the plan of the embryo agree likewise in the general structure of their stems, leaves, and blossoms; and thus form a class, named from their embryo Dicotyledones, or in English, Dicotyledonous Plants. So long a name being inconvenient, it may be shortened into Dicotyls.

38. Polycotyledonous is a name employed for the less usual case in which there are more than two cotyledons. The Pine is the most familiar case. This occurs in all Pines, the number of cotyledons varying from three to twelve; in Fig. 56, 57 they are six. Note that they are all on the same level, that is, belong to the same node, so as to form a circle or whorl at the summit of the caulicle. When there are only three cotyledons, they divide the space equally, are one third of the circle apart. When only two they are 180° apart, that is, are opposite.

39. The case of three or more cotyledons, which is constant in Pines and in some of their relatives (but not in all of them), is occasional among Dicotyls. And the polycotyledonous is only a variation of the dicotyledonous type,—a difference in the number of leaves in the whorl; for a pair is a whorl reduced to two members. Some suppose that there are really only two cotyledons even in a Pine embryo, but these divided or split up congenitally so as to imitate a greater number. But as leaves are often in whorls on ordinary stems, they may be so at the very beginning.

40. Monocotyledonous (meaning with single cotyledon) is the name of the one-cotyledoned sort of embryo. This goes along with peculiarities in stem, leaves, and flowers, which all together associate such plants into a great class, called Monocotyledonous Plants, or, for shortness, Monocotyls. It means merely that the leaves are alternate from the very first.

41. In Iris (Fig. 58, 59) the embryo in the seed is a small cylinder at one end of the mass of the albumen, with no apparent distinction of parts. The end which almost touches the seed coat is caulicle, the other end belongs to the solitary cotyledon. In germination the whole lengthens (but mainly the cotyledon) only enough to push the proximate end fairly out of the seed; from this end the root is formed, and from a little higher the plumule later emerges. It would appear therefore that the cotyledon answers to a minute leaf rolled up, and that a chink through which the plumule grows out is a part of the inrolled edges. The embryo of Indian Corn shows these parts on a larger scale and in a more open state (Fig. 66-68). There, in the seed, the cotyledon remains, imbibing nourishment from the softened albumen, and transmitting it to the growing root below and new-forming leaves above.

42. The general plan is the same in the Onion (Fig. 60-65), but with a striking difference. The embryo is long, and coiled in the albumen of the seed. To ordinary examination it shows no distinction of parts. But germination plainly shows that all except the lower end of it is cotyledon. For after it has lengthened into a long thread, the chink from which the plumule in time emerges is seen at the base, or near it, so the caulicle is extremely short, and does not elongate, but sends out from its base a simple root, and afterwards others in a cluster. Not only does the cotyledon lengthen enormously in the seedling, but (unlike that of Iris, Indian Corn, and all the cereal grains) it raises the comparatively light seed into the air, the tip still remaining in the seed and feeding upon the albumen. When this food is exhausted and the seedling is well established in the soil, the upper end decays and the emptied husk of the seed falls away.

43. In Maize or Indian Corn (Fig. 66-70), the embryo is more developed in the seed, and its parts can be made out. It lies against the starchy albumen, but is not enclosed therein. The larger part of it is the cotyledon, thickish, its edges involute, and its back in contact with the albumen; partly enclosed by it is the well-developed plumule or bud which is to grow. For the cotyledon remains in the seed to fulfil its office of imbibing nourishment from the softened albumen, which it conveys to the growing sprout; the part of this sprout which is visible is the first leaf of the plumule rolled up into a sheath and enclosing the rudiments of the succeeding leaves, at the base enclosing even the minute caulicle. In germination the first leaf of the plumule develops only as a sort of sheath, protecting the tender parts within; the second and the third form the first foliage. The caulicle never lengthens: the first root, which is formed at its lower end, or from any part of it, has to break through the enclosing sheath; and succeeding roots soon spring from all or any of the nodes of the plumule.

44. Simple-stemmed Plants are thus built up, by the continuous production of one leaf-bearing portion of stem from the summit of the preceding one, beginning with the initial stem (or caulicle) in the embryo. Some Dicotyls and many Monocotyls develop only in this single line of growth (as to parts above ground) until the flowering state is approached. For some examples, see Cycas (Fig. 71, front, at the left); a tall Yucca or Spanish Bayonet, and two Cocoa-nut Palms behind; at the right, a group of Sugar-canes, and a Banana behind.

Section IV. GROWTH FROM BUDS: BRANCHING.

47. Buds (Fig. 72, 73). Every incipient shoot is a Bud (12). A stem continues its growth by its terminal bud; it branches by the formation and development of lateral buds. As normal lateral buds occupy the axils of leaves, they are called axillary buds. As leaves are symmetrically arranged on the stem, the buds in their axils and the branches into which axillary buds grow partake of this symmetry. The most conspicuous buds are the scaly winter-buds of most shrubs and trees of temperate and cold climates; but the name belongs as well to the forming shoot or branch of any herb.