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Plants And Their Uses - An Introduction To Botany | by Frederick Leroy Sargent



The main purpose of the book is to show some of the educational possibilities offered by plants of every day use, and at the same time to guide beginners to such general ideas about plants as should form part of a liberal education.

TitlePlants And Their Uses - An Introduction To Botany
AuthorFrederick Leroy Sargent
PublisherHenry Holt And Company
Year1913
Copyright1913, Henry Holt And Company
AmazonPlants And Their Uses; An Introduction To Botany
-Preface To Plants And Their Uses, An Introduction To Botany
The main purpose of the book is to show some of the educational possibilities offered by plants of every day use, and at the same time to guide beginners to such general ideas about plants as should f...
-The Study Of Plants. Part 1. Botanical Questions
Botanical questions. When an unfamiliar plant attracts our attention usually the first questions we wish to ask are: What is it? What is it good for? or What does it do? Such questions have been asked...
-Part 2. The Beginnings Of Botany
2. The beginnings of botany. Like most people to-day, the earliest botanical writers concerned themselves more with the uses of plants than with their forms and habits. Thus Pliny, the most learned of...
-Part 3. Our Dependance Upon Plants
3. Our dependence upon plants. Let us consider for a moment how much we depend upon the vegetable kingdom. Every one knows that in all we eat and drink, the nutritious, strength-giving part comes eith...
-Part 4. Human Needs And The Needs Of Plants
4. Human needs and the needs of plants. We must not forget that plants as well as animals are living things growing from infancy to old age, needing food and protection, and bearing offspring. Their v...
-Part 5. How Plants Are Named
5. How plants are named. Whenever many objects are to be studied and compared, it is necessary to have some convenient system of naming them and some method of expressing the various degrees of resemb...
-Part 6. Early Plant Names
6. Early plant names. The exact form of the name by which each kind of plant should be known was not decided until the middle of the eighteenth century. Then certain practical reforms were brought abo...
-Part 7. Binomial Nomenclature
7. Binomial nomenclature. To each of the different kinds of plants and animals which were known in his time, Linnaeus gave a name like the one above, consisting of two parts. In doing this he made uni...
-Part 8. Species Of Plants
8. Species. Ordinarily, there is no danger of being misunderstood when we speak of such and such sorts or kinds of plants, in the way that people commonly do; but when we come to a careful study o...
-Part 9. Varieties Of Plants
9. Varieties. We have seen above that among the offspring of a single plant there will be minor differences, and that among the individuals of a species the differences may be very considerable. If in...
-Part 10. The Genus Of Plants
10. The genus. In the same way that those individuals which possess some special set of peculiarities constitute a variety, and just as there may be several varieties in which the individuals are enou...
-Part 11. The Authority Of Naming Plants
11. The authority. It has sometimes happened that different botanists have given different names to plants of the same species, and the same name to plants of different species. To avoid any uncertain...
-Part 12. Plant Families And Higher Groups
12. Plant families and higher groups. On the same principle that similar species form a genus, similar genera are grouped into a family; and families which have certain fundamental points of similarit...
-Part 13. The Departments Of Botany
13. The departments of botany. The peculiarities considered in classifying plants are chiefly such as concern the form, construction, and arrangement of parts. An understanding of botanical classifica...
-Cereals. Part 14. What Cerials Are
14. What cereals are. The ancient Romans, long before the Christian era, held each year at seed-time and harvest great festivals in honor of their goddess Ceres whom they worshiped as the giver of gra...
-Part 15. Characteristics Of Cerials
15. Characteristics of cereals. The general appearance of the most important grain-plants is shown in Figs. 1 to 15. As will be seen, they all agree in having narrow grass-like leaves, and slender upr...
-Part 16. The Importance Of Grains In Ancient Times
16. Importance of grains in ancient times. Many facts go to show that cereals must have been among the very first plants raised from seed. The Roman ceremonies, before referred to, were patterned afte...
-Part 17. The Earliest Use Of Grains
17. Earliest use of grains. Although we may be sure that the cultivation of the grains began many years before the time of our earliest records concerning them, we have no means of knowing how long ag...
-Parts 18 Oats - 19 Barley - 20 Rye
18. Oats thrive in northern regions where most of the other grains do not flourish. This grain forms one of the chief foods of the Scotch, Icelanders, and Scandinavians. Where other grains are used mo...
-Part 21. Maize Is One Of The Most Important Of The Grains
21. Maize is one of the most important of the grains. The ease with which it may be grown in almost any climate, and the simple way in which the kernels may be prepared for eating, have made it almost...
-Part 22. Rice
22. Rice grows best in hot countries, and as the varieties most used require to be submerged for a considerable period in order to develop properly, their cultivation is restricted to localities where...
-Part 23. Wheat
23. Wheat. Throughout the greater part of Europe and America wheat holds the first place among vegetable foods. Now that railways and steamboats have made transportation easy, more and more wheat is b...
-Part 24. Buckwheat
24. Buckwheat is sometimes included among cereals because it is cultivated for its grain. As will be seen, however, from Fig. 22 this plant differs very much from the other cereals. It is a native of ...
-Part 25. The Value Of Cerials
25. The value of cereals. Why is it that the cereal grains have been valued so highly from the earliest times? What makes them so much better than other vegetable foods, and why are some of them super...
-Part 26. Water In Grains
26. Water in grains. Every part of a plant contains ordinarily a certain quantity of water-succulent herbage and fruits like the watermelon having a great deal, while woody parts, seeds, and grains ha...
-Part 27. Ash In Grains
27. Ash. If the sample dried as suggested be burned until all of the combustible material is consumed, there will remain a small quantity of ash or mineral matter, varying somewhat in the different ki...
-Part 28. Nutrients In Grains
28. Nutrients. A large part of the grain consumed in burning, consists of nutrients, i. e., nutritious substances, which form the main bulk. Besides this there is a small amount of woody material (non...
-Part 29. Carbohydrates In Grains
29. Carbohydrates. If we knead a little wheaten dough in a considerable quantity of water, the latter becomes milky from the presence of a pure white substance which washes out from the dough, while t...
-Part 30. Proteids Or Protein In Grain
30. Proteids. Let us return now to that other constituent of the wheaten dough, the elastic material which remained after removal of the starch. This is known as gluten1 and is a mixture of several su...
-Part 31. Fats In Grain
31. Fats. One other constituent shown in the chart remains to be mentioned. This is the fat or fixed oil, called fixed because, unlike the volatile oils, it does not evaporate at ordinary temperat...
-Various Food-Plants. Part 32. Classes Of Food Plants
32. Classes of food-plants. Having in the last chapter learned something of the uses and importance of the cereal grains, we may now profitably compare with them other food-plants many of which are al...
-Part 33. Nuts
33. Nuts have, like grains, an edible kernel; but this is generally much larger than in any grain, and is moreover protected by a much thicker and harder shell. The chestnut (Figs. 24-26), the filbert...
-Part 34. Pulse - Peas And Beans
34. Pulse, under which name are included peas (Figs. 37, 38), and beans (Figs. 39, 40), 1 agree with grains and nuts in that the nutritive part is contained within the seed, but differ from them in th...
-Part 35. Earth Vegetables
35. Earth-vegetables we shall find to be a convenient term to designate those garden esculents of which the nutritive part grows in the earth. This edible part may be either a root-tuber as in the swe...
-Part 35. Earth Vegetables. Continued
Fig. 33.-Peanut (Ara-chis hypogoea, Pulse Family, Leguminosoe). A, lower part of a plant showing the leaves and flowers above ground, and ripening nuts and roots below; the surface of the ground bei...
-Part 36. Herbage Vegetables
36. Herbage-vegetables may be defined as those which yield us nutriment in shoots developed above ground. They include pot-herbs and certain salads. The most nutritive part is in some cases the te...
-Part 36. Herbage Vegetables. Part 2
Fig. 57.-Sweet Potato. Flower-clusters coming from leaf-axils, 1/2. Flower, cut vertically; natural size. Fruit, 2/1. Seed, cut in half vertically to show the folded germ in seed-food (dotted), 4/1....
-Part 36. Herbage Vegetables. Part 3
Fig. 62, II.-Asparagus. A, upper part of a flowering branch. X 3/4. B, flower, enlarged. C, perianth and stamens of the same spread out. D, stamen, outer view. E, pistil. E, cross section of ovary. ...
-Part 36. Herbage Vegetables. Part 4
Fig. 69.-Brussels Sprouts (B. oleracea vav gemmifera). Plant at close of first vear's growth. Much reduced. (Nicholson.) Fig. 70.-Cauliflower (B. oleracea, var. Botrytis). Plant at close of first...
-Part 36. Herbage Vegetables. Part 5
Fig. 80, I.-Pumpkin (Cucurbita Pepo. Gourd Family, Cucurbitaceoe). Flowering branch. (Baillon.)-The plant is an annual climbing more or less by means of tendrils, and attaining a length of 7 m.; ste...
-Part 37. Fruit Vegetables
37. Fruit-vegetables, as the name implies, are succulent fruits which are used in the same manner as herbage and earth-vegetables. The most important examples are the cucumber, the various sorts of sq...
-Part 38. Fruits Are Eaten For Their Sweet Or Acid Juices
38. Fruits are eaten principally for their sweet or acid juices, and thus differ in general from what we call vegetables. Moreover, while vegetables are generally cooked, or at least are prepared ...
-Part 39. Miscellaneous Food Products
39. Miscellaneous food-products. Under this head we must consider the products of certain plants which do not properly belong to any of the foregoing groups. Thus in the common garden rhubarb or pie-p...
-Part 39. Miscellaneous Food Products. Part 2
On the subject of poisonous plants we shall have more to say in a subsequent chapter. The only safe rule is for a person to avoid touching, and on no account to eat, any part of a plant which he does ...
-Part 39. Miscellaneous Food Products. Part 3
Fig. 105.-Watermelon, fruit. (Nicholson.) Fig. 106.-Orange (Citrus Aurantium) and Lemon (C. medica, var. Limonum, Rue Family, Rutaccoe). A-F, Orange. A, flowering branch. B, flower, central part,...
-Part 39. Miscellaneous Food Products. Part 4
Fig. 111.-Pineapple (Ananas sativus, Pineapple Family, Bromeliaceoe). A, flowering shoot, bearing the cone-like cluster of flowers each protected by a bract. B, fruit, showing continuation of the sh...
-Part 39. Miscellaneous Food Products. Part 5
Fig. 116, III.-Prickly Sago Palm. Ripe fruit and remains of a staminate branch of the flower-cluster. (LeMaout and Decaisne.)-Three years are required to ripen this strangely armored fruit. Fig. ...
-Part 40. Vegetable Foods In General
40. Vegetable foods in general. In the foregoing sections, it has been shown that a classification of vegetable foods based upon the manner and degree of their usefulness is at the same time a fairly ...
-Part 41. Food As A Fuel And Building Material
41. Food as fuel and building material. Before proceeding to compare vegetable with animal foods certain fundamental facts regarding food in general must be considered. We know that so long as a man i...
-Part 42. Measures Of Food Energy
42. Measures of energy. As we have to depend for warmth and strength mainly upon fats and carbohydrates, it becomes important to inquire how these compare with each other in fuel value, for as already...
-Part 43. Energy Of Vegetable Foods
43. Energy of vegetable foods. Experiments show that if completely burned, 1 gram of fat yields 9.3 Calories carbohydrate 4.1 proteid 4.1 The...
-Part 44. Rations Or Portion Size
44. Rations. Recent experiments indicate that the needs of an average man would be fully met by a daily ration of 300 grams of carbohydrate, 50 grams of fat, and 50 grams of proteid.1 1 More or less ...
-Parts 45. Food Plants In General and Part 46 The Primitive Centres Of Agriculture
Part 45. Food-plants in general. When considering the cereal grains, we found that important facts regarding their special value and present use were explained by the original geographical range and e...
-Part 47. Relation Between Culture Period And Native Home
Part 47. Relation between culture-period and native home. It may be laid down as a rule that, other things being equal, the nearer the native home of a cultivated species is to the region forming one ...
-Part 48. The Multiplication Of Plant Varieties
Part 48. The multiplication of varieties. Besides the effect which geographical range has exerted upon the spread and period of cultivation, the differences in the number of varieties that have arisen...
-Part 49. How Plant Varieties Arise
Part 49. How varieties arise. Finally, a brief consideration of how such artificial varieties arise, will help us to understand why it is that long and widespread cultivation should tend to increase...
-Part 50. Artificial Plant Selection
Part 50. Artificial selection. Besides these principal ways in which cultivated varieties arise, there are some others the consideration of which must be deferred to a later chapter. What at present c...
-Flavoring And Beverage Plants. Part 51. Food Adjuncts
Part 51. Food-adjuncts. If by food we mean whatever is eaten to supply the building materials or energy needed by the body, it must follow that much of what is eaten is not food. Various substances,...
-Part 52. Spices
Part 52. Spices are aromatic substances derived from hard or hardened parts of plants and used commonly in a pulverized state. For example, cloves (Fig. 122) are flower buds hardened by drying; allspi...
-Part 52. Spices. Continued
Fig. 123.-Allspice (Pimento officinalis, Myrtle Family, Myrtaceoe). G, flowering branch. E, flower, lower part cut vertically. H, fruit, cut vertically, showing but one seed developed and this with ...
-Part 53. Savory Herbs
Part 53. Savory herbs are such as have aromatic herbage which is used, either fresh or dried, to season or to garnish food. The most familiar examples are sage (Fig. 132, 133), thyme (Fig. 134), spear...
-Part 54. Savory Seeds
Part 54. Savory seeds include cardamoms (Fig. 139), and the so-called seeds of caraway (Fig. 140), anise (Fig. 141), star anise (Fig. 142), coriander (Fig. 143), and celery (Fig. 79). Cardamoms are ...
-Part 55. Miscellaneous Condiments
Part 55. Miscellaneous condiments. Horseradish and capers are food-adjuncts which differ so considerably from the others mentioned in this chapter as to require separate treatment. They agree in being...
-Part 55. Miscellaneous Condiments. Continued
Fig. 140.-Caraway (Carum Carui, Parsley Family, Umbelliferoe). Flowering and fruiting top, reduced. Leaf, showing broad attachment to the stem. Fruit, side view, enlarged. Same, cut across, showing ...
-Part 56. Flavoring Essences
Part 56. Essences are flavoring substances extracted from plants in various ways, often dissolved in water or alcohol, and always in liquid form. Peppermint obtained from the whole plant (Fig. 146), w...
-Part 57. Non-Alcoholic Beverages
Part 57. Non-alcoholic beverages include those made from unfermented fruit juices, as, for example, lemonade; those made with syrups flavored with various essences, such as soda water mixtures; and th...
-Part 58. Alcoholic Beverages
Part 58. Alcoholic beverages and stimulants in general. Alcoholic beverages are either fermented or distilled. Fermented Beverages Fermented beverages include beers or malt liquors, and wines. Beer,...
-Medicinal And Poisonous Plants. Part 59. Medicines And Poisons
Part 59. Medicines and poisons. It is an old saying that medicines are substances which make the sick well and the well sick. This saying expresses in a way the truth that among medicines are included...
-Part 60. Non-Poisonous Drugs
Part 60. Non-poisonous drugs include various substances which may be more or less nutritious, stimulating, or irritating, or may be useful for their soothing influence upon inflamed surfaces, or for s...
-Part 60. Non-Poisonous Drugs. Part 2
Fig. 156.-Gum Arabic Tree (Acacia Senegal, Pulse Family, Leguminosoe). A, flowering branch. B, flower. C, pod, half, showing seeds. D, seed, cut between the seed-leaves to show seed-stem and seed-bu...
-Part 60. Non-Poisonous Drugs. Part 3
Fig. 164, I.-Witch-hazel. (Hamamelis virginica, Witch-hazel Family, Hamamelidaceoe). Flowering branch. (Baillon.)-Shrub or tree growing about 8 m. tall; leaves downy on veins beneath; flowers yellow...
-Part 61. Poisonous Drugs
Part 61. Poisonous drugs comprise substances which depend for their power upon certain volatile oils, camphors, resins, alkaloids, and some other classes of compounds which we shall not need to discus...
-Camphors - Poisonous Drugs
Camphors are volatile substances, which form crystals at ordinary temperatures. They bear much the same relation to volatile oils that fats do to fixed oils, that is to say they are volatile oils of c...
-Resins - Poisonous Drugs
Resins are non-crystalline solids or semisolids, soluble generally in alcohol, ether, and volatile oils, but insoluble in water. They contain the same elements as volatile oils, but with a larger prop...
-Alkaloids - Poisonous Drugs
Alkaloids, as we have seen, are vegetable substances which contain nitrogen, as well as carbon, hydrogen, and sometimes oxygen, and like alkalis form salts with acids. While certain of the alkaloids, ...
-Opium - Poisonous Alkaloids
Opium is the dried milky juice which flows from wounds made in the seed-pods of the opium poppy (Fig. 172). It has been found to contain twenty different alkaloids. Of these morphine (C17H19N03) is th...
-Tobacco - Poisonous Alkaloids
Tobacco consists of the dried leaves of the tobacco plant (Fig. 173) which have been previously submitted to a process of curing or fermentation. During this process is developed a peculiar volatile s...
-Coca - Poisonous Alkaloids
The drug coca consists of the dried leaves of the coca shrub (Fig. 174). These leaves mixed with ashes or lime are chewed extensively by the Indians of western South America as a means of lessening th...
-Atropine - Poisonous Alkaloids
Atropine (C17H21N03) is another poisonous alkaloid of important use in connection with the eye. An exceedingly minute quantity locally applied causes the pupil of the eye to enlarge, by relaxation of ...
-Quinine - Poisonous Alkaloids
Quinine (C12H24N202) is one of many alkaloids obtained from the bark of the Calisaya-tree (Fig. 176) and related species. Its great and widely recognized value in the treatment of malaria is explained...
-Strychnine - Poisonous Alkaloids
Strychnine (C21H22N202), the principal alkaloid obtained from the seeds of the nux vomica tree (Fig. 177), is one of the bitterest substances used in medicine. One part of strychnine gives a bitter ta...
-Aconite - Poisonous Alkaloids
The drug aconite is the dried tuber of the monkshood (Fig. 178). This species and nearly related ones are among the most poisonous of plants. The juice of an East Indian species is used by the natives...
-62. Plants Poisonous To Eat
The number of poisonous plants which are to be found growing wild or in gardens is much larger than is generally supposed, and the cases of poisoning annually reported are more numerous than is common...
-62. Plants Poisonous To Eat. Part 2
The bark of various trees and their roots is often chewed by young people, and often serious and sometimes fatal consequences have resulted from mistaking poisonous for harmless kinds. The locust (Fig...
-62. Plants Poisonous To Eat. Part 3
Fig. 189.-Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia, Heath Family, Ericaceae), a, flowering branch, 1/3. b, flower, 1/1. c, cluster of fruits, 1/1. (Chesnut.)- Shrub 1-12 m. tall; leaves evergreen; flowers ...
-62. Plants Poisonous To Eat. Part 4
Fig. 195.-Daphne (Daphne Mezereum, Mezereum Family, Thymeloeaceoe). A, flowering branch. B, flower, entire. C, same, cut vertically. D, fruit, entire. E, same, cut vertically. (Baillon.)-Shrub 30-90...
-Poisonous Mushrooms
Some of the worst cases of poisoning occur every year from eating poisonous mushrooms or toadstools. While any intelligent person, under competent guidance can learn to distinguish the edible specie...
-Part 63. Plants Poisonous To Handle
Part 63. The number of plants which poison the skin by contact is fortunately much smaller than the number of those poisonous to eat. Among the latter which have been already mentioned the death-cup, ...
-Part 64. Poisonous Plants In General
Part 64. The preceding sections have shown that serious or even fatal consequences may result from eating, chewing, or sucking various parts of poisonous plants, or from overdoses of medicines prepare...
-Industrial Plants. Part 65. Uses Of Industrial Plants
Part 65. Uses of industrial plants. By industrial plants we mean those which yield raw materials or products used in the industrial arts; that is to say, in such industries as spinning, weaving, build...
-Part 66. Plant Fibers In General
Part 66. Plant fibers in general. Next to food-plants those producing fibers have proved the most useful of all the vegetable kingdom, and have contributed most to the advancement of civilization. Ma...
-Part 67. Plant Surface Fibers
Part 67. Plant surface fibers occur upon stems, leaves, fruit, and seeds. The only one of much economic importance is cotton. This forms the woolly covering of the seeds of several species, principall...
-Part 68. Bast Plant Fibers
Part 68. Bast fibers form, generally speaking, the strongest and most elastic part of the framework of plants. In contrast with the woody part they contain commonly a larger proportion of pure cellulo...
-Part 69. Mixed Plant Fibers
Part 69. Mixed fibers consist of slender strands including both bast and wood so intimately united that it is difficult to separate one from the other. Such compound strands form the framework or skel...
-Part 70. Pseudo Plant Fibers
Part 70. Pseudo-fibers are commonly more or less spongy masses of material which are most useful as absorbents, although serving also for other purposes. Amadou and peatmoss are good examples. Amadou...
-Part 71. Woody Plant Fibers
Part 71. Woody fibers as here understood, are either slender twigs with the bark removed, or timber mechanically reduced to strips or shreds, or else chemically treated so as to separate the ultimate ...
-Part 72. Wood Uses In General
Part 72. Wood in general. In economic importance woods rank next to vegetable fibers. Just as the great use of fibers is for clothing, which is almost as necessary to us as food, so the great use of w...
-Part 72. Wood Uses In General. Part 2
A definition of wood in the economic sense requires that it be distinguished principally from fiber, because of the especially close similarity between them. Fibers, we have seen, are sometimes woody,...
-Part 72. Wood Uses In General. Part 3
A piece of wood consists essentially of a mass of extremely slender fibers or fibrils, each comparable to a fibril of cotton, but firmly cemented together. The valuable qualities of woods, and their d...
-Part 72. Wood Uses In General. Part 4
Fig. 232.-Wedge of a four-year-old pine stem cut in winter, showing, somewhat diagrammatically, a transverse surface (q), a radical surface (1) and a tangential surface (t); f, f, f, spring wood; s,...
-Part 73. True Woods
Part 72. The following include the more important woods commonly used in this country:- Sassafras - True Woods Sassafras (Fig. 160) though neither hard, strong, nor especially pleasing, is exception...
-Oak - True Woods
Oak (Figs. 235, 242, 243) is used extensively for heavy construction in common carpentry and shipbuilding, and in car and wagon work on account of its extraordinary strength; also in the manufacture o...
-Elm - True Woods
Elm (Figs. 236, 244) has a beauty of grain, especially on the tangential section, which is just beginning to be appreciated by joiners, though on account of its exceeding toughness and non-liability t...
-Ash - True Woods
Fig. 237.-Transverse section of ash wood, 3/1. (Hartig.) Ash (Figs. 237, 245) has a wide range of uses because it is at once hard, strong, stiff, tough, straight-grained, easily split, often beauti...
-Walnut - True Woods
Walnut, especially black walnut (Fig. 246) has long been a favorite ornamental wood particularly well adapted for joinery on account of its strength. The so-called English walnut (Figs. 27, 238) is si...
-Cherry - True Woods
Cherry as found in the lumber market is almost entirely the wood of the wild black cherry (Fig. 247) although the wood of other species may sometimes be offered. Its fine texture and attractive color ...
-Maple - True Woods
Maple, especially sugar-maple (Fig. 248) has all the qualities necessary for flooring, paneling, and other interior finishing. It is highly valued also for the keels of vessels. As a material for furn...
-Tulip Whitewood - True Woods
Tulip whitewood (Fig. 249) is used in enormous quantities for a great many purposes where fine texture, ease of working, and stiffness are required but not much strength. Interior finishing, furniture...
-Magnolia - True Woods
Magnolia (Fig. 250), has a wood so closely resembling that of the tulip whitewood as to be frequently used for similar purposes. Fig. 250, Magnolia, Bull Bay (Magnolia grandiflora, Magnolia Family....
-Basswood - True Woods
Basswood, obtained from the linden tree (Figs. 251, 252), resembles the sap-wood of magnolia in appearance and properties. On account of its lightness, uniform texture, and pale color it is used espec...
-Poplar - True Woods
Poplar (Fig. 253) obtained from various species, is a very soft, light wood of limited use in building and furniture making; but found to be suitable for sugar and flour barrels, cracker boxes, crates...
-Birch - True Woods
Birch (Figs. 240, 254) of various species is a wood resembling cherry in its properties, and when stained to imitate it, is often used in place of the more expensive material for interior finishing an...
-Mahogany - True Woods
Mahogany (Fig. 255) is pre-eminently the joiner's wood, being preferred to all others for cabinet making of all sorts, interior finish, and ornamental work in general. Fig. 255.-Mahogany (Swietenia...
-Sycamore - True Woods
Sycamore (Fig. 256) is just coming to be appreciated as an ornamental wood capable of charming effects in cabinet work and interior finishing, especially with quarter-sawed stock; though for parts les...
-Beech - True Woods
Beech (Figs. 241, 257) resembles sycamore in its properties, and is used in somewhat the same ways by cabinet makers and turners. Fig. 241.-Transverse section of beech wood, 3/1. (Hartig.) Fig. ...
-Pine - True Woods
Pine (Figs. 229-232, 258) is used more extensively than any other kind of wood, and finds a place in almost every wood-working industry. The qualities which give it this pre-eminence are mainly that i...
-Larch - True Woods
Larch (Fig. 259) is very like hard pine in appearance, qualities, and uses. For ship's knees (i. e., angular braces giving stiffness to the frame) the lower part of the tree as it curves naturally w...
-Spruce - True Woods
Spruce (Fig. 260) resembles soft pine in appearance and qualities and is commonly put to the same uses. Being remarkably resonant it is preferred to all other woods for the sounding-boards of pianos, ...
-Red Cedar - True Woods
Red cedar (Fig. 261) has just the lightness, softness, and even texture required for lead-pencils; and is used in very large quantities for that purpose, almost to the exclusion of other woods. It als...
-Redwood - True Woods
Redwood (Fig. 262) closely resembles red cedar in appearance and qualities and has many of the same uses. Its great durability makes it highly valued for shingles, and its large dimensions and rich co...
-Hemlock - True Woods
Hemlock (Fig. 263) is soft and stiff though brittle, commonly cross-grained, coarse, and splintery. It is of value chiefly for rough carpentry, and railway-ties. Fig. 263.-Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis...
-Part 74. Pseudo-woods
Part 74. Pseudo-woods, as we have seen, may be defined as more or less wood-like materials which, however, show no trace of pith rays or annual rings. Under the name porcupine-wood the outer harder p...
-Part 75. Cork
Part 75. Cork is the light, waterproof, compressible yet elastic material forming the outer bark of the cork oak (Figs. 267-269). Like true wood it is built up of annual layers formed by a cambium. It...
-Part 76. Elastic Gums Or Rubber
Part 76. Elastic gums, including india-rubber or caoutchouc 1 and gutta-percha,2 are tough, more or less elastic and waterproof solids which separate as a curd from the milky juice of a number of trop...
-Part 76. Elastic Gums Or Rubber. Continued
The discovery of vulcanization revolutionized the rubber industry. Not only were the old uses greatly extended but new uses for rubber have so multiplied that caoutchouc now ranks among the most impor...
-Part 77. Plant Resins
Part 77. Resins, like elastic gums, are derived from liquids exuded by plants, and serve as a protective covering for wounds. The common resin obtained from the pitch or turpentine of pines is a famil...
-Part 78. Coloring Matters Or Dyes
Part 78. Coloring matters of some sort are almost universally present throughout the vegetable kingdom. In many cases they can scarcely be supposed to be of any benefit to the plant which produces the...
-Gamboge - Coloring Matters Or Dyes
Gamboge is a gum-resin obtained from the Siamese gamboge-tree (Fig. 274) and other Asiatic species of the same genus. The resinous material flows from the bark through cuts, and is collected in hollow...
-Indigo - Coloring Matters Or Dyes
Indigo has been called the King of Dyestuffs in recognition of the permanency and strength of its deep blue color, and the supremacy it has maintained over all rivals from the time of its first use ...
-Logwood - Coloring Matters Or Dyes
Logwood is obtained from a small Central American tree (Fig. 276). It is exported in the form of logs from which the sap-wood has been removed. The coloring matter which it yields, is, like indigo, no...
-Tan-bark - Coloring Matters Or Dyes
Tan-bark is obtained from many trees, including hemlock (Fig. 263), oak (Fig. 243), willow (Fig. 228), chestnut (Fig. 24), larch (Fig. 259), and spruce (Fig. 260), which are rich in tannins. These sub...
-Part 79. Plant Oils
Part 79. Oils, whether fixed or volatile, are very generally present throughout the vegetable kingdom; and, as we have already seen, they are often of much economic importance as food or flavoring, an...
-Part 80. Plant Fuels
Part 80. Fuel, whether as a source of heat or of power, being indispensable to the carrying on of almost every industry, and being also a necessity for steam-transportation, for the heating of buildin...
-Wood - Plant Fuels
Wood is the most used of all fuels. All woods when perfectly dry consist of nearly 99% of combustible material and about 1% of inorganic matter which remains as ash when the wood is burned. Air-dry wo...
-Coal - Plant Fuels
Coal, like peat, consists of the decomposed and compacted remains of plants. It differs from peat principally in being harder and more completely reduced to carbon. But peat passes into coal by insens...
-Part 81. Useful And Harmful Plants In General
Part 81. Useful and harmful plants in general. From our study of some of the more important groups of economic plants we have learned not only that the very existence of the human race depends upon th...
-Classification And Description. Part 82. Systematic Classification Of Plants
Part 82. Systematic classification. In Chapter 1 it was pointed out that the large number of plants which botanists have to study has made necessary some sort of classification or orderly arrangement ...
-Part 83. Early Attempts At Classifying Plants
Part 83. Early attempts at classifying. Perhaps the reader may ask why it is not sufficient for all purposes of study to classify plants according to their uses, somewhat as we have been doing. Such a...
-Part 84. Artificial Systems Of Plant Classification
Part 84. Artificial systems. An attempt was made to overcome the above objection regarding unnatural separation of sorts much alike, by calling the larger shrubs, trees, and the smaller ones, herbs, t...
-Part 85. The Linnsean System Of Plant Classification
Part 85. The linnsean system. The great need for some system which would be used by botanists in general, could, of course, be met only by a classification that was more convenient than any of those a...
-Part 86. The Natural System Of Plant Classification
Part 86. The natural system. As a contribution to the natural system which he firmly believed would be developed in course of time, Linnaeus published a series of sixty-seven groups of genera which he...
-Part 87. Technical Description Of Plants
Part 87. Technical description. One of the most serious difficulties with which the earlier botanists had to contend was the problem of giving one another a clear idea of what each had seen. It is pla...
-Part 88. Early Attempts at Describing Plants
Part 88. Early attempts at describing. Before the time of Linnaeus, the attempt was made by many botanical writers to avoid the language difficulty by the use of pictures to show what they meant, much...
-Part 89. The Linnaean Reform In Plant Terminology
Part 89. The linnaean reform in terminology. Being thoroughly familiar with the botanical writings of his predecessors, and endowed with a fine sense of fitness in language, Linnaeus was able to choos...
-Part 90. Terminology And Nomenclature In Botany
Part 90. Terminology and nomenclature. Persons who have only a superficial acquaintance with botany are apt to think of it merely as a study of names, which hinder rather than help one in learning wha...
-The Parts Of A Seed-Plant. Part 91. Flax As A Sample Type
Part 91. Flax as a sample type. De Candolle, one of the most learned of French botanists, was wont to say that he could teach all he knew of botany from a handful of plants. What he had in mind was do...
-Part 92. The Seed
Part 92. The seed may be compared roughly to an egg. Much as in a hen's egg, for example, we have the shell covering a mass of food material provided for the chick or germ which lies within it, so in ...
-Part 93. The Seedling And Its Development
Part 93. The seedling and its development. When the seed germinates, the radicle is the first part to appear (Fig. 279B). Soon it grows into a root (Fig. 279C) covered with hairs through which absorpt...
-Part 94. The Flower And The Fruit
Part 94. The flower and the fruit. In the center of the flower (Fig. 217 II) we find a pistil1 containing ovules 2 within an ovary 3 from the top of which grow five styles 4 each terminating in a stig...
-Part 95. Physiological Division Of Labor In The Plant
Part 95. Physiological division of labor. Even such a cursory examination as we have made of our typical plant is sufficient to show not a little variety and complexity in the different parts which co...
-Part 96. Plant Organs And Their Functions
Part 96. Organs and their functions. In either a plant or an animal any part having a special office to perform is called an organ,1 the special office being known as its function.2 Thus the root of o...
-Part 97. Morphological Differentiation
Part 97. Morphological differentiation. From what has been said of the life history of flax it is plain that the differentiation of its parts progresses as the plant grows older. We saw that the parts...
-Part 98. Morphological Units
Part 98. Morphological units. We have seen that the embryo flax is a miniature plant already possessing a stem-part, rudimentary leaves, and the beginning of a root. These parts we recognize as repres...
-Part 99. Members Of The Plant Body
Part 99. Members of the plant body. A plant like flax is sometimes thought of as a colony of segments or in other words as a community of closely connected individuals each consisting of a stem-part a...
-Part 100. Homologies
Part 100. Homologies. We have already seen that the terms analogy, analogue, and analogous, afford us a means of expressing physiological equivalence or similarity in function. To express morphologica...
-The Crowfoot Family. Part 101. General Features
Part 101. General features. In several respects the crowfoot family is the best one with which to begin our study of plant groups. It forms an especially serviceable standard of comparison because its...
-Part 102. The Vegetative Organs Compared - The Crowfoot Family
Part 102. The vegetative organs compared. Let us begin by comparing the marsh-marigold as a type of the family with the other representatives here illustrated. This plant we know to be an herb because...
-Part 102. The Vegetative Organs Compared - The Crowfoot Family. Part 2
Most of the crowfoot family are like marsh-marigolds in having their leaves petiolate. In some cases there is no petiole. The leaf is then described as sessile,8 a term applied to any stalkless organ ...
-Part 102. The Vegetative Organs Compared - The Crowfoot Family. Part 3
Fig. 285, II.-Mouse-tail. Pistil, entire. Same, cut vertically. Staminode. (Baillon.) Fig. 286.-Fennel-flowers (Nigella sativa and N. damascena, Crowfoot Family, Ranunculaceoe). A, flowering top ...
-Part 103. The Reproductive System - The Crowfoot Family
Part 103. The reproductive system. Turning now to the flowers of the marsh-marigold it will be noticed that they grow either at the tip of the main axis or on stalks which arise from the axils of uppe...
-Part 103. The Reproductive System - The Crowfoot Family. Part 2
The ovules of marsh-marigolds are essentially like those of flax and of all the crowfoot family. We may distinguish in each ovule a little stalk, the funicle,20 which continues as a ridge, the raphe,2...
-Part 103. The Reproductive System - The Crowfoot Family. Part 3
Many of the crowfoot family have the calyx petaloid, as in marsh-marigolds, anemonies, clematises, Christmas roses, fennel-flowers, baneberries, columbines, and monkshoods. In mouse-tails each of the ...
-Part 104. Plant Formulas - The Crowfoot Family
104. Plant formulas. We may be helped in summing up what we have learned from our various examples if we express their most significant structural characteristics by means of symbols arranged in a sor...
-Part 105. The Family Chain - The Crowfoot Family
Part 105. The family chain. Having learned the signification of these symbols we are now in position to use the formulas as a ready means of comparing the main structural features of our representativ...
-Various Plant Groups. Part 106. The Magnolia Family
Part 106. The magnolia family (Magnoliaceae) is a comparatively small group well represented by magnolias (Magnolia), the tulip-tree (Liriodendron), and star-anise (Illicium). At first sight there mig...
-Part 107. The Laurel Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 107. The laurel family (Lauraceae) consists also of woody plants with oil reservoirs similar to those of the magnolia family. This aromatic oil gives to sassafras (Sassafras officinale) and to ci...
-Part 108. The Crowfoot Order - Various Plant Groups
Part 108. The crowfoot order (Ranunculales or Ranales). A comparison of the three families we have been studying shows them to be closely linked together, much as are the genera within each family. By...
-Part 109. The Poppy Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 109. The poppy family (Papaveraceae) is represented sufficiently well for our purpose by the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Like all the other species of its genus, it contains instead of vola...
-Part 110. The Mustard Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 110. The mustard family (Cruciferae) agrees closely with the poppy family in general form and floral structure, as may be seen by comparing our figures of cabbages, turnips, mustards, and rape (B...
-Part 111. The Poppy Order - Various Plant Groups
Part 111. The poppy order (Papaverales or Rhoeadales) comprises a few families well represented by the poppy and the mustard families and agreeing in having mostly racemose inflorescences of complete,...
-Part 112. The Rose Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 112. The rose family (Rosaceae) as illustrated by the almond (Fig. 31), apple (Figs. 91 I, II), pear (Fig. 92), quince (Figs. 93 I, II), peach (Fig. 94), plum (Fig. 95), cherry (Fig. 96), raspber...
-Part 113. The Pulse Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 113. The pulse family (Leguminosae). Examples: peanut (Fig. 33), pea (Figs. 37, 38), beans (Figs. 39, 40), gum arabic tree (Fig. 156), tragacanth shrub (Fig. 157), licorice (Fig. 162), locust (Fi...
-Part 115. The Linden Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 115. The linden family (Tiliaceae.) Examples: jute (Figs. 218 I, II), and linden (Figs. 251, 252). See the formulas of Corchorus, Tilia, and Tiliaceae on pages 410, 411. The bracts of lindens (...
-Part 116. The Mallow Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 116. The mallow family (Malvaceae). Examples: cotton (Figs. 214-216) and marshmallow (Fig. 158). See pages 410,411 for formulas of Gossypium, Althaea, and Malvaceae. Several new features are pr...
-Part 118. The Parsley Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 118. The parsley family (Umbelliferae). Examples: carrot (Figs. 47-53), parsnip (Figs. 54, 55), celery (Figs. 78, 79), parsley (Fig. 138), caraway (Fig. 140), anise (Figs. 141 I, II), coriander (...
-Part 120. The Buckwheat Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 120. The buckwheat family (Polygonaceae). Examples: buckwheat (Fig. 22) and rhubarbs (Fig. 112 and Fig. 163). See pages 412, 413 for formulas of Rheum, Fagopyrum, and Polygonaceae. The stems of...
-Part 122. The Birch Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 122. The birch family (Betulaceae). Examples: filbert (Fig. 23) and birch (Fig. 254). See pages 412-415 for formulas of Betula, Corylus, and Betulaceae. We meet in this family with the singular...
-Part 123. The Beech Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 123. The beech family (Fagaceae). Examples: chestnut (Figs. 24-26), oaks (Figs. 242, 243, 267), and beech (Fig. 257). See pages 414, 415 for the formulas of Fagus, Castanea, Quercus, and Fagacea...
-Part 125. The Walnut Family - Various Plant Groups
125. The walnut family (Juglandaceae). Examples: walnut (Fig. 27), butternut (Fig. 28), pecan (Fig. 29), hickory (Fig. 30), and black walnut (Fig. 246). Formulas of Juglans, Carya, and Juglandaceae a...
-Part 127. The Willow Family - Various Plant Groups
127. The willow family (Salicaceae). Examples: willow (Figs. 228 I, II) and poplar (Fig. 253). Formulas of Populus, Salix, and Salicaceae are given on pages 414, 415. Much simpler flowers are here s...
-Part 129. The Crowfoot Series - Various Plant Groups
Part 129. The crowfoot series (Archichlamydeae). A general view of all the orders which we have thus far studied shows them to agree (with but rare exceptions) in having no coalescence among the petal...
-Part 130. The Heath Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 130. The heath family (Ericaceae). Examples: wintergreen (Fig. 147), mountain laurel (Fig. 189), and sheep laurel (Fig. 190). Formulas of Gaultheria, Kalmia, and Ericaceae are given on pages 416...
-Part 132. The Morning-glory Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 132. The morning-glory family (Convolvulaceae) is well exemplified by the sweet potato (Figs. 56, 57). Formulas of Ipomoea and Convolvulaceae are given on pages 416, 417. The new features to be...
-Part 133. The Nightshade Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 133. The nightshade family (Solanaceae). Examples: white potato (Figs. 58 I-III), tomato (Figs. 88, 89), egg-plant (Fig. 90), red pepper (Figs. 125 I, II, 126), tobacco (Fig. 173), belladonna (Fi...
-Part 135. The Mint Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 135. The mint family (Labiatae). Examples: sage (Figs. 132, 133), thyme (Fig. 134), spearmint (Fig. 135), summer savory (Fig. 136), sweet marjoram (Fig. 137), and peppermint (Figs. 146 I, II). T...
-Part 137. The Gourd Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 137. The gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). Examples: pumpkin (Figs. 80 1-81 I), squashes (Figs. 81 II-84), cucumber (Figs. 85-87), muskmelon (Figs. 102, 103), watermelon (Figs. 104, 105), sponge cucu...
-Part 138. The Bellflower Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 138. The bellflower family (Campanulaceae). Examples: Indian tobacco (Figs. 188 I, II) and bellflower (Fig. 299 II). The formulas of Campanula, Lobelia, and Campanulaceae are given on pages 418-...
-Part 139. The Sunflower Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 139. The sunflower family (Compositae). Examples: Jerusalem artichoke (Figs. 59 I-IV), lettuce (Figs. 75-77), and wormwood (Fig. 155). Formulas of Helianthus, Lactuca, Artemesia, and Compositae ...
-Part 140. The Bellflower Order - Various Plant Groups
Part 140. The bellflower order (Campanulales), includes several families with flowers perfect, imperfect, or neutral, regular or irregular, mostly gamopetalous; the stamens five, adherent to the corol...
-Part 142. The Dicotyl Sub-class - Various Plant Groups
Part 142. The dicotyl sub-class (Dicotylédones) comprises the crowfoot series (Archichlamydeae) and the bellflower series (Metachlamydeae). These agree in being made up of seed plants with the embryo ...
-Part 143. The Grass Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 143. The grass family (Graminae). Examples: oat (Fig. 1-4), rice (Figs. 5, 6), rye (Fig. 7), wheat (Figs. 8, 9), barleys (Figs. 10-12), maize (Figs. 13-15), sugar-cane (Fig. 114), broom-corn (Fig...
-Part 145. The Palm Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 145. The palm family (Palmaceae). Examples: coconut (Figs. 34-36), date (Figs. 108, 109), sago palms (Figs. 116 I-III), rattans (Figs. 223 I, II), and vegetable ivory (Figs. 266 I, II). The form...
-Part 147. The Arum Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 147. The arum family (Araceae) is exemplified by Acorus (Fig. 167) See formulas of Acorus and Araceae on pages 422, 423. Although the members of this large family differ very much in general ap...
-Parts 149 to 152. - Various Plant Groups
Part 149. The Rush Family Part 149. The rush family (Juncaceae) is typified by the common rush. (Fig. 221.) See formulas of Juncus and Juncaceae on pages 422, 423. At first sight the rushes appear ...
-Part 153. The Orchid Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 153. The orchid family (Orchidaceae). Examples: vanilla (Fig. 148 I) and lady's-slippers (Figs. 212, 213). See formulas of Cypripedium, Vanilla, and Orchidaceae on pages 424, 425. Although in t...
-Parts 155 And 156. - Various Plant Groups
Part 155. The Monocotyl Subclass Part 155. The monocotyl subclass (Monocotyledones) is made up of seed-plants having a monocotyledonous embryo, endogenous stem, and mostly parallel-veined leaves. Tog...
-Part 157. The Pine Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 157. The pine family (Pinaceae). Examples: juniper (Fig. 154), pine (Fig. 258), larch (Fig. 259), spruce (Fig. 260), red cedar (Fig. 261), redwood (Fig. 262), and hemlock (Fig. 263). See formula...
-Part 158. The Yew Family - Various Plant Groups
Part 158. The yew family (Taxaceae) is exemplified by the yew (Fig. 204). See formulas of Taxus and Taxaceae on pages 426, 427. Simplification of floral parts here reaches an extreme. In the yew (Ta...
-Parts 159 And 160. - Various Plant Groups
Part 159. The Pine Order Part 159. The pine order (Coniferales or Coniferae) comprises only the two families given above. They are distinguished as woody plants, with branched stem; unbranched, usua...
-Part 161. The Seed Plant Division - Various Plant Groups
Part 161. The seed-plant division (Spermatophyta) is coextensive with that branch of the Vegetable Kingdom commonly known as Phanerogamia, phenogams, or flowering plants, because characterized by the ...
-Part 162. The Vegetable Kingdom - Various Plant Groups
Part 162. The vegetable kingdom (Vegetabilia) which includes all plants is regarded most conveniently as consisting of four main divisions assumed to be equal in rank.1 1 This view differs somewhat f...
-Plant Formulas. Pages 404 to 427
Plant Formulas page 404 Plant Formulas page 405 Plant Formulas page 406 Plant Formulas page 407 Plant Formulas page 408 Plant Formulas page 409 Plant Formulas page 410 Plant For...
-Kinship And Adaptation. Part 163. The Problem Of Origins
Part 163. The problem of origins. Kinship among living things implies a common origin. We know that kin always resemble one another more or less closely, and this likeness we attribute to their inheri...
-Part 164. The Doctrine Of Special Creation - Kinship And Adaptation
Part 164. The doctrine of special creation. Linnaeus embodied the belief of his own age and of former times in the famous saying, We reckon so many species as there were distinct forms created in the...
-Part 165. The Doctrine Of Organic Evolution - Kinship And Adaptation
Part 165. The doctrine of organic evolution expresses a somewhat different view, which, however, is not so fundamentally opposed to creationism as might appear from the violent controversies waged bet...
-Part 165. The Doctrine Of Organic Evolution - Kinship And Adaptation. Part 2
But by far the greater part of the buried generations have left no remains and may be reconstructed only conjecturally by reasoning backward to the ancestral traits from the peculiarities possessed in...
-Part 165. The Doctrine Of Organic Evolution - Kinship And Adaptation. Part 3
Fig. 300.-Family tree of Ranunculaceae, illustrating the evolution of the group as provisionally suggested in the following text. Our vertical diagram thus indicates that of all the living forms of...
-Part 166. Acquired Adaptations - Kinship And Adaptation
Part 166. Acquired adaptations. The belief that all existing organisms are the more or less modified descendants of relatively primitive forms, is now as generally held by naturalists as is the belief...
-Part 167. Selected Adaptations - Kinship And Adaptation
Part 167. Selected adaptations. Dissatisfaction with Lamarck's explanation of modification through acquirement, deterred most of his contemporaries from accepting the theory of evolution, and it was n...
-Part 167. Selected Adaptations - Kinship And Adaptation. Continued
Darwin's theory carried to its extreme by his modern followers, known as Neo-Darwinians, denies that acquired peculiarities are ever fixed by inheritance. Only what was inborn in the parent, they say,...
-Part 168. Acquirement Versus Selection - Kinship And Adaptation
Part 168. Acquirement versus selection. We have seen that the chief difficulty which the Lamarckians have to face comes from their unproved assumption that acquired characters may be fixed by inherita...
-Part 169. Sudden Adaptations - Kinship And Adaptation
Part 169. Sudden adaptations. Professor Hugo de Vries, an eminent botanist of Amsterdam, Holland, was led to a new view of the process of evolution by studying for a number of years the descendants of...
-Part 170. Plant Evolution By Choice - Kinship And Adaptation
Part 170. Evolution by choice. To make the foregoing analogy complete we should have to imagine a kaleidoscope with the power of self-movement; for whatever may be the factors which bring about mutati...
-Part 171. Plant Evolution In General - Kinship And Adaptation
Part 171. Evolution in general. The creation of living things by successive steps, one growing out of another, is viewed by modern science as part of a gradual process of world-making which is underst...
-Plant Life-Histories. Part 172. Cycles Of Life
Part 172. Cycles of life. Every creature which completes its span of life passes through various stages of development from germ to adult, and may in turn give rise to similar germs which may continue...
-Part 173. The Blue Algae - Plant Life-Histories
Part 173. The blue algae (Class Cyanophyceae). Among the useful plants we have studied the only alga is the so-called carrageen or Irish Moss, and this, as we shall see, belongs to one of the most h...
-Part 173. The Blue Algae - Plant Life-Histories. Continued
Successive fissions often take place in such a way that the partitions are in planes at right angles to one another, with the result, shown in the tint-balls, that more or less cubical groups of cells...
-Part 174. The Green Algae - Plant Life-Histories
174. The green algae (Class Chlorophyceae) include many familiar water plants. They are characterized by having the chlorophyll ordinarily unmasked by any other pigment, their structure and their met...
-Part 174. The Green Algae - Plant Life-Histories. Part 2
Fig. 310.-Grape Desmid. Germination of zygospore: A, protoplast emerging; B, protoplast beginning to divide in half; C, division nearly complete; D, division complete within the thin temporary cell-...
-Part 174. The Green Algae - Plant Life-Histories. Part 3
Fig. 313.-Wool-weed (Ulothrix zonata, Wool-weed Family, Ulotrichacece). A, young plant with basal cell (r) serving as a root-like organ of attachment, B, part of plant with escaping swarm-spores. C,...
-Part 175. The Brown Algae - Plant Life-Histories
Part 175. The brown algae (Class Phaeophyceae) are characterized in general by a brown coloring matter, phycophoein,1 masking the chlorophyll. They are almost entirely marine. Besides many comparative...
-Part 176. The Red Algae - Plant Life-Histories
Part 176. The red algae (Class Rhodophyceae), the largest and one of the most highly developed groups of seaweeds, are characterized by the presence of a red pigment called phycoerythrin,1 which very ...
-Part 177. The Seaweed Subdivision - Plant Life-Histories
Part 177. The seaweed subdivision, algae in general. It is believed by evolutionists that life originated in the sea. Among the algae we generally find that the marine forms are more primitive than th...
-Part 178. The Fission Fungi - Plant Life-Histories
Part 178. The fission fungi (Class Schizomycetes). Fungi, broadly defined, are thallus-plants without chlorophyll. In their structure and life-histories they present often noteworthy parallels to what...
-Part 179. The Yeast Fungi - Plant Life-Histories
Part 179. The yeast fungi (Class Saccharomycetes). Alcoholic fermentation, or the conversion of a carbohydrate into alcohol and carbonic acid gas, such as takes place in the manufacture of beer and wi...
-Part 180. The Pin Mold Fungi - Plant Life-Histories
180. The pin-mold fungi (Class Zygomycetes). Various fermentations or putrefactions affecting bread, preserves or other food, are often due to so-called pin-molds like the Mucor shown in Figs. 324, ...
-Part 181. The Water Mold Fungi - Plant Life-Histories
Part 181. The water-mold fungi (Class Oomycetes) are typified by a small group closely resembling algae because of their aquatic habits. These water-molds, as they are called, are well represented by ...
-Part 182. The Spore Sac Fungi - Plant Life-Histories
Part 182. The spore-sac fungi, (Class Ascomycetes) may be illustrated sufficiently for our purpose by the mildews. These, typified by the powdery mildew Erysibe, are parasitic upon the aërial part...
-Part 183. The Spore Base Fungi - Plant Life-Histories
Part 183. The spore-base fungi (Class Basidiomycetes) are well represented by the mushrooms, although very many widely diverse forms are included among its other members. The common field mushroom (Fi...
-Part 184. The Mushroom Division - Plant Life-Histories
Part 184. The mushroom division, fungi in general, are most fittingly named after a type which has departed as far as possible from the holophytic condition. In trying to conceive by what course the ...
-Part 185. The Spore Sac Lichens - Plant Life-Histories
Part 185. The spore-sac lichens (Class Ascolichenes). After long study and careful experimenting in the culture of lichens botanists have reached the strange conclusion that what were at first regarde...
-Part 186. The Spore Based Lichens - Plant Life-Histories
Part 186. The spore-base lichens (Class Basidiolichenes) include only a few tropical forms of symbiotic Basidiomycetes which may be represented by the mushroom-lichen (Cora pavonia, Fig. 337). This co...
-Part 187. The Lichen Subdivision - Plant Life-Histories
Part 187. The lichen subdivision, lichens in general. Lichens include about 5,000 species, none of which are of much economic importance. They may be defined as algofungal air-plants. Although made up...
-Part 188. The Thallophyte Division - Plant Life-Histories
Part 188. The thallophyte division, lobeworts (Thallophyta) although composed of the humblest members of the vegetable kingdom yet contains, as we have seen, some of man's best friends, and also some ...
-Part 189. The Liverworts Or Hepatics - Plant Life-Histories
Part 189. The liverworts or hepatics (Class Hepaticae) take their name from a fancied resemblance of the broad-lobed thallus of certain lower forms to the lobed liver of an animal. Fig. 338.-Crysta...
-Part 189. The Liverworts Or Hepatics - Plant Life-Histories. Part 2
Both generations are still more highly developed in the umbrella-liverwort (Marchantia, Figs. 340-342), a common species growing on the earth in moist localities. The spores germinate much as in Ricci...
-Part 189. The Liverworts Or Hepatics - Plant Life-Histories. Part 3
Fig. 341, IV.-Umbrella-liverwort, mc, cluster of young spores; sp, spore. An elater. A piece of the same, showing the elastic spring-like spiral thickening within. All highly magnified. (Atkinson.) ...
-Part 190. The True Mosses - Plant Life-Histories
Part 190. The true mosses (Class Musci). The name moss is popularly given to any small, matted plant of soft texture whether it be a seaweed, a lichen, a liverwort, or one of the higher plants. In s...
-Part 190. The True Mosses - Plant Life-Histories. Continued
Fig. 349.-Peatmosses. A, tip of female branch of S. acutifolium, cut vertically to show the archegonia (ar), protective leaves (ch) still young, and older ones (y) acting like bud-scales. B, young ...
-Part 191. The Bryophyte Division - Plant Life-Histories
Part 191. The bryophyte division, mossworts (Bryophyta) comprises only the two classes liverworts (Hepaticae) and true mosses (Musci) which in general are often called mossworts. Mossworts show us po...
-Part 192. The Ferns - Plant Life-Histories
Part 192. The ferns (Class Filicinae). Our most primitive ferns are represented by adder-tongues (Ophioglossum) and grape-ferns (Botrychium, Fig. 357). Fig. 357.-Adder-tongue, A, and grape-fern, B ...
-Part 192. The Ferns - Plant Life-Histories. Part 2
We know that during the coal age many tree-ferns like the Pecopteris shown in Fig. 277, apparently near of kin to the adder-tongues, produced stout trunks bearing a crown of ample leaves nearly twenty...
-Part 192. The Ferns - Plant Life-Histories. Part 3
Fig. 366.-Fern Stems (Aspidium spp.). A, underground stem (rhizome) of A. Filix-mas with rind removed to show the net-work of fibrovascular bundles. B, one mesh of this net-work enlarged to show the...
-Part 193. The Scouring Rushes - Plant Life-Histories
Part 193. The scouring-rushes (Class Equisetinae) are represented in modern times only by comparatively small plants of the genus Equisetum (Fig. 369)-about 25 species- which, however, are closely rel...
-Part 194. The Club Mosses - Plant Life-Histories
Part 194. The club-mosses (Class Lycopodinae) are well typified by Lycopodium (Fig. 166) which is popularly regarded as a kind of moss because of the general resemblance of the leaves and stems, in ...
-Part 195. The Pteridophyte Division Fernworts - Plant Life-Histories
Part 195. The pteridophyte division, fernworts (Pteridophyta) is made up of the three classes above named. Ferns being especially typical of them all, the plants of this division are conveniently desi...
-Part 196. Cryptograms And Phenogams - Plant Life-Histories
Part 196. Cryptogams and phenogams. The highest development of plant life is associated with the production of seeds, which afford the best possible provision for the welfare of offspring. There is a...
-Part 196. Cryptograms And Phenogams - Plant Life-Histories. Part 2
Fig. 380.-Norway Spruce. Growth of embryo. A, early stage, 190/1. B, later stage, 22/1. C, half-ripe embryo, showing below the protrusions from which the cotyledons are formed, 22/1. D, same, cut ve...
-Part 196. Cryptograms And Phenogams - Plant Life-Histories. Part 3
Fig. 382.-Climbing Buckwheat (Polygonum Convolvulus, Buckwheat Family, Polygonacece). Pistil (48/1) during fertilization, cut vertically to show stalk-like base (fs) of ovary; stalk of ovule (fu); e...
-Part 196. Cryptograms And Phenogams - Plant Life-Histories. Part 4
In concluding our survey of vegetable evolution it may help us to a just perspective if we briefly review the main steps which the ancestors of angiosperms appear to have taken in their long upward jo...
-The Plant's Place In Nature. Part 197. The Three Kingdoms
Part 197. The three kingdoms. It has long been the general opinion that all natural objects fall readily into three main groups or kingdoms-the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal. Over a century a...
-Part 198. The Inorganic Realm - The Plant's Place In Nature
Part 198. The inorganic realm, it must be admitted, presents many points of fundamental similarity with the organic. Thus volume, mass, resistance, form, and all such physical properties are common to...
-Part 198. The Inorganic Realm - The Plant's Place In Nature. Continued
Those who doubt that there is any essential difference between living and lifeless things may still urge in favor of their view that certain plants are to all appearance practically lifeless during th...
-Part 199. The Organic Realm - The Plant's Place In Nature
Part 199. The organic realm. A typical living organism may be conceived of as a self-building boat formed of materials taken from the inorganic stream in which it floats, but controlled by an indwelli...
-Part 200. Plants In General - The Plant's Place In Nature
Part 200. Plants in general. The foregoing reflections upon the way natural objects are related to one another are intended especially to emphasize the pivotal place which plants hold in the economy o...






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