BOTANY. The science which teaches the knowledge of plants, as to their discriminating characters, structure, growth, culture, diseases, and the like. Plants are distinguished into natural orders, as trees, the stems of which send forth 'branches from the middle and top : shrubs, the sterns of which send forth branches from the bottom undershrubs, when the stems of the shrubs perish : herbs, which bear flow ers and seeds, and then die ; if they die at the end of one year they are called annuals, if at the end of two years biennials, if they last three or more years they are perennials : fungi are fleshy, coriaceous, or woody: alga, or sea weeds, have neither stems nor leaves : mosses, which have only leaves and fruit : ferns, that never send forth more than one leaf on a foot stalk: grasses, which are distinguished by their stem, which is a calm or straw : lilies, which have a tuberous or bulbous root : palms, which have an arboreous stein, from which the leaves grow, and not the branches.
The parts of plants are distinguished germ. rally into the root, the stem, the bud, the leaf,' the inflorescence, and the fructification. The root is the parCthrough which the plant de rives nourishment from the earth ; a plant is either annual, biennial, or perennial, according to the time that the rootlasts. Roots are some times called fleshy, when they consist of a fleshy prolongation; fibrous, when they con sist of many fibrousprolongations ; tuberous, when they consist of a thick fleshy substance, as the potato; bulbous, when they consist of a bulb or fleshy body, provided with several coats, as the onion or the lily ; granulated, when they have a cluster of little bulbs, as in the saxifrage ; creeping, when they have a horizontal prolongation of the root growing under the earth, and sending forth new plants of its kind, as couchgrass.
The stem is the prolongation of the plant above the soil, proceeding from the root. The woody stem of trees is the trunk ; that which is herbaceous is the stalk, and belongs only to herbaceous plants ; but the stalk of grasses, rushes, and similar plants, is called the calm ; and when the stalk bears flowers and fruits immediately from the root, and not leaves, it is a scope, as in the primrose and cowslip ; the stalk which springs from the stem or branches, bearing the flower and fruit, is the peduncle or flower stalk ; that which bears the leaf only is the petiole, or footstalk.
The bud is that part of the plant which contains the embryo of the leaves, flowers, Sac., and serves as their hybernaculum, or winter receptacle. The bud is guarded by scales, and furnished with gum, or wool, as an additional defence. The moss bud is a roundish longish body, proceeding from the mother plant, and becoming itself a new one ; the gongylus is a knob belonging to the seaweed, which falls oil on the death of the mother plant, and becomes a new one.
The leaf is the herbaceous production from the ascending stem ; when the stalk and leaf are so intimately connected that they cannot be distinguished, this is called a frond, as in the palms and the algae. To the leaf belong several appendages, which serve either for or nament or some specific use, as the bractefe, or floral leaf,. that stands near or between the flowers, forming a tuft, as in the pineapple ; the stipula, a small leaf that appears on the stem, in the place of a footstalk ; the sheath, a prolongation of the leaf that rolls itself round the stem, as in grasses ; the ascidium, or bet• tle, a foliaceous cylindrical hollow body, which is generally furnished with a cover, and con tains water ; the ampulla, or bladder, a round hollow body at the roots of water plants ; the gland, a round body situated on the leaves which serves as an organ of respiration ; the or thorn, that rises in the interior of the plant, as in the sloe; the aeuleus, or prickle, that issues bark the cirous clasper, or tendril, a filiform body which serves to; support weak plants, as in the vine, &c. ; the
i ansta, or awn, a pointed beard in grasses; the pili, hairs, fineslender bodies, which include all tends of pubescence, as bristles, wool, &c. some of which discharge a poison, as in the nettle. The inflorescence is the mode of flowering, which differs very much in different plants, and is distinguished into verticillus, the whorl, which consists of several flowers, standing at intervals, the stem, as in the mint; the racemus, ffie raceme, a peduncle, with short lateral branches, as in the currant and the vine, du. ; the corymbus, or corymb, an erect raceme, the lower peduncles of which are so lengthened as to be of equal height with the upper ; when the peduncles take their rise from the some centre, but the subdivisions are irregular, it is a cyme ; when the peduncles rise from the same centre, but the whole is dis posed in regular order, it is an umbel ; the capitulum has many flowers, standing thick, so as to form a head, as in the globe amaranth ; the fasciadus, fascicle or bundle, a number of simple peduncles rising at the foot of the stem from several points, as in the sweetwilhUm ; the !pica, or ear, as in wheat and barley ; the, panicula, or particle, in which the flowers or fruits are scattered on branches unequally di vided, as in the oat grass; the spadix, so called from the spadix vagina, or sheath, which con tains the flower stalks ; the amentum, or cat kin, a long stem thickly covered with scales, under which are the flowers or essential parts, as in the willow and hazel ; the sorus, or mass, an inflorescence peculiar to the ferns, which have masses of seed capsules in their fronds. The fructification consists of the flower and the fruit The principal parts of the flower are, 1. The calyx, or flowercap, or envelope of green leaves, which, when it immediately en closes the flower, is a perianth ; when it con tains many flowers in one is an anthodium ; when it consists of many leaves surrounding the flower, as in umbel iferous plants, is an involuere. The calyx of grasses is called the Flume ; when it rolls itself round the stem, as in some grasses, it is called the vagina, .3r sheath; and in some aquatic plants the spa the, or spathe. 2, The corolla, or blossom, the envelope of small leaves of various colours which constitute the flower properly so called; the divisions of the corolla are mlW the petals ; the parts of the corolla are the tubas, the tube, the hollow under part of a corolla that has but one petal ; limbos, the border or opening of the corolla labia, the lips ; barbs, the beard ; ric tus, the gape between the extremities of the lips ; faux, the throat or the opening of the tube; nectarium, the nectary, which common ly serves to secrete a sweet juice; this is some trines in the shape of a hood, and is called the cuaillus, or hood as in the aconite or monks hood ; sometimes in the shape of a spur, call ed calcar, as in the violet ; also in that of an arch, a crown, 3. The stamen is an es sential part of the flower which consists of the filament or thread that supports the anther ; anthers, the anther, a hollow cellular body ; and pollen, the powder or fine dust contained in the anther. 4. The pistil, the sectmd es sential part of a flower, stands in the centre of the circle formed by the stamen, and consists of the germen, the rudiments of the future fruit or seed; the stylus, style or shaft, a small stalk seated on the gm-men; and the stigma, the top of the style.