Practical Botany

by Joseph Young Bergen, Otis William Caldwell

1911

Excerpt from Practical Botany: There are already so many books embodying elementary courses in botany that whoever offers another should give reasons for so doing. As here set forth, the study of plants is related to everyday life more closely than is usually done. Those aspects of plant life are presented which have the largest significance to the public in general, and which are of interest and educative value to beginning students. The book includes the principles of plant nutrition, the relation of plant nutrition to soils and climate and to the food of animals and men; it discusses some of those diseases of plants, animals, and men, which are produced by parasitic plants; the propagation of plants, plant breeding, forestry, and the main uses of plants and plant products are given in an elementary way. The elements of plant life and structure are presented synthetically rather than by use of the special divisions of botanical study, which are more helpful to advanced students than to beginners. It is believed that this mode of treatment stimulates and develops a scientific method of thinking by directing attention to the plant as a living unit and a citizen of the plant world. No attempt is made to include references to such recent discoveries in the field of botany as are botanically significant but not important for elementary instruction. Chapters I and II are so arranged that a student may secure a general introductory appreciation of the significance of plant structure and work. It is intended that Chapter I should be used as a means of raising questions concerning the place of plants in nature. Chapter II presents an outline of the five dominant structures of seed plants, and the kind of work that is done by each.