BOTANY. Botany has been defined as being the science which treats of the structure of plants, the functions of their parts, their places of growth, their classification, and the terms which are employed in their description and denomination. Economic botany may be defined as teaching to distinguish between useful and noxious plants, and a correct knowledge of those plants necessary in daily life. Botany, in a strict sense of the term, is the science which teaches the arrangement of the members of the vegeta ble kingdom in a certain order or system, by which we are enabled to ascertain the name of any individual plant with facility and precision. Such arrangement is only to be con sidered as useful in proportion as it facilitates the acquirement of a knowledge of their eco nomical, and medicinal quali ties, which cannot be perfectly ascertained without an ac quaintance with vegetable physiology, the parts of plants, their functions and uses. Bot any, in its most comprehensive form, teaches us the names, arrangement, parts, functions, qualifies and uses of plants. It will not be neces sary here to go into structural botany. It will be interesting, however, to become acquainted with leaf forms. Consequently we give a series of carefully prepared illustrations, showing the various /shapes they assume. The cuts, Figs. 1 and 2, show the apex and bases of leaves, with their forms and names. Coming now to the forms of leaves, the accompanying cut, Fig. 3, will`show, a, repand leaf of Enchanter's Night shade; b, double serrate leaf of Elm ; c, undulate leaf bf Shingle Oak (Q. irn,bricaria); d, crenate leaf, Catmint; e, dentate leaf of Arrow-wood (Vi burnum dentalum); f, serrate leaf of Chestnut; g, lobed leaf (Chrysanthemum). Leaves, it may be remarked, are described by their forms, pat terns of the borders, or margins. These are various, and always beautiful to the educated eye. Some are hairy, some are smooth, and others covered with an enamel of ailex, present ing a glistening surface. The quince and lily have their margins entire and even. The wil low is notched in the margin like a saw, but the teeth all point one way, like those of a saw for ripping boards. Thus they are serrate, or if the notches are very fine, serrated. If the teeth point neither forward or backward, but out ward, they are dentate, or like teeth;' and again, if the teeth are quite small they are denticulate. But the teeth themselves may be again toothed. Then they sce doubly dentate; or, the serratures of a leaf may be notched. They are then douhly, serrate, as in the elm, Fig. 3. So, in the apex of leaves there is something to learn. The apex may be acuminate, ending in a long, tapering point; or cuspidate, suddenly contracted to a sharp slender point; mucronate, tipped With a spiny point; acute, simply ending with an angle; obtuse, blunt. Or the leaf may end without a point, being truncate, as if cut square off; retuse, with a rounded and slightly depressed end where the point should be; emarginate, having a small notch at the end; obcordate. ing a deep indentation at the end. This may seem to some readers of hut lit-. tle practical value, theless, it is one of the portant things upon which the study of botany rests, and valuable to every child who studies botany, even from a purely practical standpoint. Thus we have delineated something of the more simple form of leaves. In the scope of this work, while giving condensed information from an experience ot over a quarter of a cen tury, of manual labor on the farm, supplemented by constant reading of the best authorities, careful experiment, and the close application of all to the practical working of the farm, we have followed authorities only so far ap they do' not conflict with the practical application of science. Scientific names are of value to a
large class of readers, and for the reason that the Latin has been adopted where civilization with palmate, three-toothed leaflets (Potentilla triclentata); c, binate leaf (Jeffersonia di phylla); d, simple leaf jointed to the petiole, Lemon. Fig. 9, rose leaves (compound leaves); at a, in this cut., shows the stipules adnate (a stipule is an appendage at the base of a leaf somewhat resembling a small leaf in texture and appearance); b, shows a leaf of violet ( V. tri color) with gashed stipule. The next cut, Fig. 10, shows Red clover; a compound leaf , at a; b, simple leaf, Weeping Willow; c, ensiform (sword shape) leaf of Iris, or Fleur extends, as a language with which scholarly men are acquainted, and hence is a me dium used which all readily understand. Thus, whatever common names may be used for one and the same object, its true name is always expressed scientifically by a name, synonyms scarcely ever being allowed, inserted in parenthesis. In the above cut, Fig 4, are shown at a, reniform leaf of Wild Ginger; b, reniform leaf of Pennywort; c, peltate leaf of Penny wort; d, oblong leaf of Toothed Arabis; e, of Scratch Knot-grass; f, obovate-spatulate, articulate at baso, Fra ser's Magnolia; g, spatulate leaf of Silene Virginica ; h, three-lobed leaf of Liverwort. In the next cut, Fig. 5, the form shown at a.runcinate leaf of Wild Lettuce ; b, pin natifid leaf of Celandrine ; c, pinnatisect leaf of Fennel-flower. The next series of leaves, Fig. 6,, shows a, ovate leaf of Pear tree; b, lanceolate leaf of Flowering Al mond; c, narrow lanceolate leaf; d, del toid leaf of White Birch. The next series, Fig. 7, shows a, obovate leaf of Smoke-tree (Rhue cotinue); b, orbicular leaf of Winter green (Pyrola); c, oval leaf of Plum-tree; d, elliptical leaf of Black Haw; e, oblong leaf - -- of willow. In the next illustration, Fig. 8, are still other forms, as a, leaf with five cut lobes, almost guinate (Potentilla aneerina); b, ternate, de-lis ; d, acerose ' shaped) leaf of Scotch Pine. In the next illustration, Fig. 11, still other forms of leavls are given, as a, amplexicaul leaves (Aster lade); b, foliate leaves of Beliwort (Uvularia perfoliata); c, nate leaves of Honeysuckle (Lonkera sempervirens). The next cut, Fig. 12, shows at a, an orbicular, leaf of leaved Orchis; b, a sagittate leaf of Arrowhead; c, a date leaf of Pond-weed; d, lanceolate leaves stem and flower of Lily of the ley; and e, linear leaves of Blue-eyed grass chium), The next tion, Fig. 13, will show forms of leaves, including some of the oaks and other curious forms, as a, natifid leaf of Pig-weed (Goose-foot family); b, sinnate-lobed leaf of White Oak; c, undulate Catalpa, or may be clothed with long hairs, called coma. The silk of Silk-grass (A8cle pias) is the coma of the seed, and cotton is the coma of cotton seal. The seed of poplar (cotton-wood) or wil low is also furnished with coma. The first stage of growth is called germination. (See article on Germination.) As to how it grows, the water which the plant imbibes by its roots becomes sap in the stem, and circulates in every part as the blood circulates in the animal frame. The leaves, by their broad, thin forms, serve as lungs, to bring all the sap passing through them into contact • a Flo. 9.