A Text Book Of Botany

  Contents

Preface

About the Author

Chapter 1: Introduction to Botany

Chapter 2: Protophytes

Chapter 3: Algae

Chapter 4: Fungi

Chapter 5: Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes

Chapter 6: Lichens

Chapter 7: Bryophyta

Chapter 8: Pteridophyte

Chapter 9: Gymnosperms

Chapter 10: Angiosperms

Chapter 11: Introduction

Chapter 12: Characters of Flowering Plants: Roots, Stems, Leaves, Fruits and  Seeds

Chapter 13: Ferns

Chapter 14: Features of Leaves

Chapter 15: Dispersal of Plants

Chapter 16: Pollination

Chapter 17: Economic Botany: Uses of Plants by Humankind

Reference

Preface

Welcome to botany. The study of plant is called botany. The authors records his deep sense of gratitude to Douglas Houghton Campbell who have contributed important book to the elements of structural and systematic botany for high schools and elementary college courses.

The first chapter gives introduction to this subject. The second chapter deals with the prototypes and his classifications. The third chapter provides on the basic concepts of algae. The fourth chapter builds a preliminary overview of fungi. The fifth chapter discusses ascomycetes and basidiomycetes. The sixth chapter describes the lichen. The seventh chapter and eight chapter discusses about the bryophyte and pteridophyte respectively. The ninth chapter and tenth chapter describes gymnosperms ànd angiosperms respectively.

The eleventh chapter gives introduction. The twevelth chapter give characteristics of flowering plants like roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds. The thirteen chapter also describes the flowering plants. The third chapter describes ferns. The fourtheen chapter describes features of leaves. The fiftheen chapter builds a preliminary overview of dispersal of plants by winds, water. The sixtheen chapter describes the pollination. The seventheen chapter describes uses of plants by humankind.

Thanks to my all the friends for their continue support and encouragement. The author also thanks to pixabay and flickr.

  About the Author

Anupam Rajak received his B.Sc in Botany from the Raghunathpur College, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University. He has published several articles in international journal. His email address is [email protected]

Chapter 1

Introduction to Botany

All living organisms are dependent for existence upon inorganic matter, and sooner or later return these elements to the sources whence they came. After the plant dies, however, it undergoes decomposition, and the elements are returned again to the earth and atmosphere from which they were taken.

Figure 1.0 Fungi (Photo Credit: Pixabay)

The science that treats of living things, irrespective of the distinction between plant and animal, is called Biology, but for many purposes it is desirable to recognize the distinctions, making two departments of Biology,—Botany, treating of plants; and Zoology, of animals.

                                          Figure 1.1 Plants (Photo Credit: Pixabay)

Most of the lower green plants (algae) may be kept for a long time in glass jars or other vessels, provided care is taken to remove all dead specimens at first and to renew the water from time to time. They usually thrive best in a north window where they get little or no direct sunshine, and it is well to avoid keeping them too warm. Numbers of the most valuable fungi—i.e. the lower plants that are not green—grow spontaneously on many organic substances that are kept warm and moist. Fresh bread kept moist and covered with a glass will in a short time produce a varied crop of moulds, and fresh horse manure kept in the same way serves to support a still greater number of fungi. Mosses, ferns, etc., can be raised with a little care, and of course very many flowering plants are readily grown in pots. Most of the smaller parasitic fungi (rusts, mildews, etc.) may be kept dry for any length of time, and on moistening with a weak solution of caustic potash will serve nearly as well as freshly gathered specimens for most purposes. When it is desired to preserve as perfectly as possible the more delicate plant structures for future study, strong alcohol is the best and most convenient preserving agent. Except for loss of colour it preserves nearly all plant tissues perfectly.

Figure 1.2 Algae (Photo Credit: Flickr)

If we make a thin slice across the stem of a rapidly growing plant,—e.g. geranium, begonia, celery,—mount it in water, and examine it microscopically, it will be found to be made up of numerous cavities or chambers separated by delicate partitions. These are called cells.

Cell was first discovered by Robert Hook. Cell is the structural and functional unit of life. The membrane surrounding the cell is known as the cell wall, and in young plant cells is always composed of cellulose. The cell may be regarded as the unit of organic structure, and of cells are built up all of the complicated structures of which the bodies of the highest plants and animals are composed.

  Figure 1.3 Cell (Photo Credit: Pixabay)

Chapter 2

Protophytes

The white pine belongs to the highest great division (sub-kingdom) of the plant kingdom. The plants of this division all produce seeds, and hence are called spermaphytes (seed plants). They may be divided into two groups (classes), distinguished by certain peculiarities in the flowers and seeds. These are named respectively gymnosperms and angiosperms, and to the first our plant belongs. The gymnosperms may be further divided into several subordinate groups (orders), one of which, the conifers, or cone-bearing evergreens, includes our plant. This order includes several families, among them the fir family (Abietineae), including the pines and firs. Of the subdivisions (genera, sing. genus) of the fir family, one of the most familiar is the genus Pinus, which embraces all the true pines. Comparing different kinds of pines, we find that they differ in the form of the cones, arrangement of the leaves, and other minor particulars. The form we have selected differs from all other native forms in its cones, and also in having the leaves in fives, instead of twos or threes, as in most other kinds. Therefore to distinguish the white pine from all other pines, it is given a specific name, strobus. Pinus strobus is found in the North America.

Table 1. Showing the Scientific Classification:

The name Protophytes (Protophyta) has been applied to a large number of simple plants, which differ a good deal among themselves. Some of them differ strikingly from the higher plants, and resemble so remarkably certain low forms of animal life as to be quite indistinguishable from them, at least in certain stages. Indeed, there are certain forms that are quite as much animal as vegetable in their attributes, and must be regarded as connecting the two kingdoms. Such forms are the slime moulds, Euglena, Volvox, and others.

                                    Figure 2.1 Pinus strobus (Photo Credit: Flickr)

Classification:

The Protophytes divided into three classes:

I. The slime moulds (Myxomycetes).

II. The Schizophytes.

III. The green monads (Volvocineae).

The Slime Mould:

These curious organisms are among the most puzzling forms with which the botanist has to do, as they are so much like some of the lowest forms of animal life as to be scarcely distinguishable from them, and indeed they are sometimes regarded as animals rather than plants. At certain stages they consist of naked masses of protoplasm of very considerable size, not infrequently several centimetres in diameter. These are met with on decaying logs in damp woods, on rotting leaves, and other decaying vegetable matter. The commonest ones are bright yellow or whitish, and form soft, slimy coverings over the substratum, penetrating into its crevices and showing sensitiveness toward light. The plasmodium, as the mass of protoplasm is called, may be made to creep upon a slide in the following way: A tumbler is filled with water and placed in a saucer filled with sand. A strip of blotting paper about the width of the slide is now placed with one end in the water, the other hanging over the edge of the glass and against one side of a slide, which is thus held upright, but must not be allowed to touch the side of the tumbler. The strip of blotting paper sucks up the water, which flows slowly down the surface of the slide in contact with the blotting paper. If now a bit of the substance upon which the plasmodium is growing is placed against the bottom of the slide on the side where the stream of water is, the protoplasm will creep up against the current of water and spread over the slide, forming delicate threads in which most active streaming movements of the central granular protoplasm may be seen under the microscope, and the ends of the branches may be seen to push forward much as we saw in the amoeba. In order that the experiment may be successful, the whole apparatus should be carefully protected from the light, and allowed to stand for several hours. After a longer or shorter time the mass of protoplasm contracts and gathers into little heaps, each of which develops into a structure that has no resemblance to any animal, but would be at once placed with plants. In one common form (Trichia) these are round or pear-shaped bodies of a yellow color, and about as big as a pin head, occurring in groups on rotten logs in damp woods. Others are stalked (Arcyria, Stemonitis), and of various colors,—red, brown, etc. The outer part of the structure is a more or less firm wall, which breaks when ripe, discharging a powdery mass, mixed in most forms with very fine fibres.

                                        Figure 2.2 Slime moulds (Photo Credit: Flickr)

The Schizophytes:

The Schizophytes are very small plants, though not infrequently occurring in masses of considerable size. They are among the commonest of all plants, and are found everywhere. They multiply almost entirely by simple transverse division, or splitting of the cells, whence their name. There are two pretty well-marked orders,—the blue-green slimes (Cyanophyceæ) and the bacteria (Schizomycetes). They are distinguished, primarily, by the first (with a very few exceptions) containing chlorophyll (leaf-green), which is entirely absent from