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The Elements of Botany, For Beginners and For Schools

by Asa Gray (1810–1888)

  • Free to read
  • 5 hours to read
  • 20 chapters
  • Reading level: 8th & 9th grade

"The Elements of Botany, For Beginners and For Schools" by Asa Gray is a scientific publication written in the late 19th century. This educational work serves to introduce readers, particularly students, to the principles of botany, focusing on the structure, growth, and behavior of flowering plants. Gray aims to equip newcomers with a foundational understanding of botanical concepts, emphasizing the importance of practical observation over rote memorization of technical terms. The opening of this volume presents a preface explaining its purpose and revisions from Gray's earlier works. It establishes that the book is designed for schools and aims to make botanical knowledge accessible and interesting to beginners by concentrating on flowering plants and their structural components. Gray introduces essential botanical vocabulary and outlines the structure and function of plants, setting the stage for a systematic study while underlining the practical aspects of plant observation and understanding.

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  • Plants

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Section I: Introductory

1. BOTANY is the name of the science of the vegetable kingdom in general; that is, of plants.

2. Plants may be studied as to their kinds and relationships. This study is SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. An enumeration of the kinds of vegetables, as far as known, classified according to their various degrees of resemblance or difference, constitutes a general System of plants. A similar account of the vegetables of any particular country or district is called a Flora.

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.

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Contents

  1. Preface
  2. Section I: Introductory
  3. Section II: Flax As a Pattern Plant
  4. Section III: Morphology of Seedlings
  5. Section IV: Growth from Buds: Branching
  6. Section V: Roots
  7. Section VI: Stems
  8. Section VII: Leaves
  9. Section VIII: Flowers
  10. Section IX: Stamens in Particular
  11. Section X: Pistils in Particular: Sec. 1. Angiospermous or Ordinary Gynoecium
  12. Section XI: Ovules
  13. Section XII: Modifications of the Receptacle
  14. Section XIII: Fertilization
  15. Section XIV: The Fruit
  16. Section XV: The Seed
  17. Section XVI: Vegetable Life and Work
  18. Section XVII: Cryptogamous or Flowerless Plants
  19. Section XVIII: Classification and Nomenclature
  20. Section XIX: Botanical Work

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About this edition

This free edition of The Elements of Botany, For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #33757, released 2010-09-18. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Science - Biology, Teaching & Education.

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