i
destroy the laiTæ already there, or that may be caiTied in by fresh specimens ; hut when
such larvæ become perfect insects, they quit the cases without leaving any eggs.
(Lindky's Introd. 1st ed. p. 468.)
1033. The herbarium is best kept in a dry room without a constant fire. Linnæus had
a stone building for his museiun, remote from his dwelling-house, into which neither fire
nor candle was ever admitted, yet no coUection could be more free than liis from the
injuries of dampness, or other causes of decay. (Smith's Introduction, ch. 24.)
1034. There are two methods o f acquiring botanical knowledge, analogous to those hy which
languages are acquired. The first is the natural method, by which plants are classed
according to the natural aifinities which they hear to each other, a knowledge of which
is obtained by a consideration of the wliole of their stmcture. This knowledge is tho
highest of which systematic botany is capable. The second is tlie artificial method by
which plants ai*e classed according to thcir similai’ity in some few particulai* points, of
stmcture, without reference to theii* natural resemblances. An easy and expeditious
mode for gardeners to know plants and study the vegetable kingdom is as foUows: —
1035. Begin by acquiring the names o f a great number o f individuals. Supposing the
plants growing in a named coUection, or that you have any person to teU you tlieir
names: then take any old book, and begin at any point (in preference the beginning)
of the coUection, border, or field, and taking a leaf from the plant whose name you wish
to know, put it between the two first leaves of the book, writing the name with a pencil,
if you arc gathering fr*om a named coUection, or if not, merely write a number, and get
the name inserted hy yom* iustmctor afterwards. Gather, say a dozen the first day ; carry
the book in your pocket, and fix these names in your mcmoi*y, associated with the fonn
and colom* of the leaves, by repeatedly tm-ning to them during the moments of leisure of
one day. Then, the second day, proceed to the plants, and endeavour to apply the
names to the entire plant. To assist you, take them iu the order in which you gathered
them, and refer to the book when yom* memoiy fails. To aid in recollecting the botanic
names, endeavour, after you have gathered the leaves, either hy books or your instructor,
to leam the etymology of the name, and somctliing of the histoiy of the plant, &c.
Attach the leaves by two transverse cuts in the paper, or by any simple process, so as
the first set may not faU out when you ai*e coUecting a second. Having fixed the first
fasciculus in yom* memory, foi*m a second, wliicli you may increase according to your
capacity of remembering. Proceed as before during the second day; and the beginning
of the tliird day, begin at your first station, and recall to memoiy the names acquired
during both the first and second day. In this way go on tiU you have acquired the
names of the great majority of the plants in the gai-den or neighbourhood where you are
situated. Nothing is more easily remembered than a word when it is associated with
some visible object, such as a leaf or a plant; and the more names of plants we know,
the more easy does it become to add to our stock of them. A person who knows only
ten plants will require a greater effort of memoiy to recollect two more, than one who
knows a thousand will to remember an additional two hundred. That gardener must
have little desire to leai*n who cannot, in two or three weeks, acquire the names of a
thousand plants, if already an*anged. I f to be collected in the fields, it is not easy getting
a thousand leaves or specimens together; but, in general, eveiy gardener requires to
charge his memory with the names, and ideas or images, of between five hundred and
one thousand plants; as being those in general cultivation as agi*icultural plants, forest-
trees, and field-shmbs, horticultm*al plants, plants of ornament, and those requiring
eradication as weeds.
1036. To acquire ihe glossology, cut a leaf or other part from the plants indicated in
any elementary work on botany which you may possess, as affording examples of each
term. You will not be able to get at all the examples; but if you get at one-tenth of
them, it will prepare you for the next step, which is—
1037. 3h acquire a knowledge o f the Linnæan classes and orders. This is easily done
by selecting the blossoms of plants whose class, &c. is designated in a catalogue. Begin
with class 1, order 1. On looking at any proper catalogue, such as our Hortus B r itannicus,
you will find that there are but few plants in this class, and only one British
example, which flowers in May. Unless you take that month, therefore, or enjoy the
advantages of inspecting liot-liouse plants, you can do nothing with this class. Proceed
to the next order, and so on, examining as many flowers as possible in each class and
order, in connection with the descriptions, as given in your elementaiy guide, in order
that you may be perfectly familiai'ised with all the classes, and the whole or the greater
number of the orders.
1038. To study the natural classes and orders. Begin in spring with the Ranunculàceæ,
and examine all the different flowers you can find belonging to that order, most of
which flower in early spring ; and then go on with the plants belonging to the other
orders as you can obtain them, carefully noticing the botanical differences. When you
ai*e acquainted with the characteristics and general appearance of several orders, amuse
i ! ' i ' i
:
yourself hy going into a garden and guessing to which natural order evei*y flower you
see belongs ; aud aftem'ards ascertain whether you have been right.
1039. Study the descriptions o f plants with the plants before you. For this purpose,
procure any good Species Plantamm or Flora, in Latin, if you know a little of that
language, as the Hortus Kewensis, or Smith’s Flora Britannica; or in English, as Hooker’s
British Flora, or Mackay’s Flora Hibemica, for tho Linnaian system ; but if you wish
to study the natui*al system, get Lindley’s School Botany, aud carefully read over the
desci-iptions and compare them with the plants before you. For more advanced students
the Elements o f Botany wOl be vei*y useftil; but for young beginners School Botany is by
far the best. Persevere in comparing all the plants you find with their botanical description,
collecting an herbarium, and writing the complete description of each specimen
under it, till aU the pai*ts of plants are familiar to you. When that is the case, you will
be able, on a plant’s being presented to you which you never saw before, to discover (by
the Linnæan method, if it be in flower), first, its class and order, and next, hy the aid of
proper books, its generic and specific name ; and this, as far as respects the names of
plants, is to attain the object in view. By the natural system, the same end may be
StiU more easily attained ; and in many cases, even a leaf wiU he sufficient to decide the
generic name, and the principal properties of the plant; as, for example, whether it be
poisonous or fit for human food.
1040. But to know the name o f an object is not to know its nature; therefore having
stored up a great many names in your memory, and become familiarised with the plants
by which you are suiTOunded, and with the a it of discovering the names of such as may
be brought to you by the Linnæan method; the next thing is to study plauts according
to their natural affinities, by refen*ing them to their natural orders, and observing the
properties common to each order. Then proceed to study their anatomy, chemistry,
and physiology; and lastly, their histoi*y and application. For these purposes Lindley’s
Introduction to Botany, and De CandoUe’s Orgauographie Végétale, may be reckoned
standard works. Books of figures, such as Sowerby’s English Botany, the Botanical
Magazine, the Botanical Register, Paxton's Magazine, the Ladies' Flowei' Garden, &c.,
are eminently useful for the first department, but they can only come into the hands of
a few. Those who understand French wiU find the elementary works of De Candolle,
Mirbel, and Richard, of a superior description; and those who have studied German
wiU find many cxceUent elementai*y botanical works in that language.
C h a p . V .
Organography, or the Anatomical Structure o f Plants.
1041, The organs o f plants are either elementary or compound. Tliis part of the
science of botany is, however, so extensive, that, in an outline like the present, it cannot
be treated witli much advantage to the student; we must, therefore, confine ourselves to
giving the young gardener an idea of how much he has to leam on the suijject; and
we must refer him to Dr. Lindley’s Elements o f Botany, to the same author’s Introduction
to Botany, 4th edit., or some similar work, for fuller infoi*matiou on the subject.
S e c t . I. Elementary Organs.
1042. The organic basis of aU plants whatever is vegetable tissue, of which their
clemcntai*y organs consist. When this tissue is first formed it is caUed cellulose, and is
composed of twenty-four parts of carbon, ten of oxygen, and twenty of hydrogen; “ but
its chemical naUirc is rapidly altered by tho addition of azote and other matters, and
espcciaUy by au increase in the relative proportion of carbon.” (Lindl. Elements o f
Botany, p. 1.) “ Tissue occurs iu the foi*m of the celhilai*, the woody, the vascular,
the pitted, and the laticiferous, the different modifications of which constitute the
elementary organs.” (Ibid. p. 2.)
Cellular tissue,
with the vesicle
two contiguous cells
th e medullary lull
rays, and all similar portions of plants, are compound cellular tissue.
Woody tissue, o r p leu r cn ch ym , “ consists of elongated tubes tapering to each end,” and it is “ distin-
.4-1 L i._, . . - . i ; « e r t A n a c c f r v i i i r V i n ” \ \ f r i r i i l v ftficn/Y iq teinL/l
•, o r p a r en ch ym , consists of a number of vesicles, each distinct in itself, but “ cohering
! with which it is in contact,” so that “ the apparently simple membrane which divides
;ells is ,in fact, double.” The pulp, or parenchyma of leaves, the medulla, or pith of wood,
guished^y its cylinfrricai form, ’great length, extreme fineness, and toughness.” Woody tissue is found
in the wood, in the liber of the bark, in the veins of the leaves, and in various parts of the footstalks, stem,
P itte d tissue, o r bothrenchym, appears to be only a form of cellular tissue, and it consists either of
“ short cylindrical cells placed end to end, opening into each other, and forming continuous tubes ; or of
long tubular cells. Its sides are marked with pits, resembling dots.” (E lem . q f B o t. ■p.b.) This tissue
forms the porous part of woods.
Vascular tissue , o r trachenchym, ‘ comisls of very thin-sided cylinders, tapering to each end, and