Beginners' botany

by L. H. Bailey

GLOSSARY

accessory or reinforced fruits are those in which the ripened pericarp is combined with other parts, as with the torus or the calyx.

adventitious. Coming by chance or without order, as the sprouts that arise where a limb is cut off.

aggregate fruits are those in which several distinct pistils cohere to form one body, as in blackberry, raspberry, mulberry.

akene or achene. A one-seeded indehiscent fruit, usually small and seed-like.

analogous. Like to, in function or use. See [homologous].

anemophilous. Said of flowers that are pollinated by the wind.

annual. A plant that naturally does not live more than one year, as garden bean, pea, Indian corn, buckwheat, cowpea.

anther. The knob or enlargement of the stamen, bearing the pollen.

antheridium. The male or sperm-cell organ, such as occurs on the prothallus of ferns and similar plants. See [archegonium].

apetalous. Without petals.

apical. At the top.

archegonium. The female or egg-cell organ on the prothallus of ferns and related plants. See [antheridium].

assimilation. The building up of protoplasm from the materials elaborated in the plant.

axil. The angle or place just above the petiole of a leaf (or pedicel of a flower) where it joins the twig.

berry. In botany, a fleshy pericarp containing a number of seeds, as current, orange, tomato, grape, cranberry, but not strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, or mulberry.

biennial. A plant that lives two years. It usually blooms the second year.

blade. The expanded part of a leaf.

bract. A small or much-reduced leaf, often a mere scale.

calyx. The outer row or series in the floral envelope. The outer “leaves” of the flower, usually green.

cambium. Growth tissue, lying between the bark-part and wood-part of the fibro-vascular bundle and giving rise to the cells of both.

capsule. A pod consisting of two or more carpels or parts, usually opening naturally.

carbohydrate. The compounds of the starch and sugar class.

carpel. One part or member of a compound pistil, or a simple pistil itself.

catkin or ament. A raceme-like or spike-like flower-cluster that falls away after flowering or fruiting, as of willows and staminate flower-clusters of walnuts and birches.

centrifugal. From the inside out; as a flower-cluster of which the inside, terminal, or uppermost flowers open first; a determinate cluster.

centripetal. From the outside in; as a flower-cluster of which the outer flowers open first; an indeterminate cluster.

chlorophyll. Leaf green. Chlorophyll is the pigment that gives the characteristic colour to plants.

cladophylla. Stems that look like leaves, and function as leaves, as in asparagus and the florists’ smilax.

cleistogamous. Applied to small flowers, usually hidden beneath the earth, that are little developed as to floral envelopes, and are self-fertilized; also to self-fertilization in flowers that do not open.

complete flowers have all the parts,—calyx, corolla, stamens, pistil.

corolla. The inner row or series of flower-leaves, usually coloured, and often of irregular shape. It may be all one piece or of many pieces.

corymb. A flattish flower-cluster in which the outermost flowers open first.

cotyledon. A leaf of the embryo; seed-leaf. The embryo may have one cotyledon (monocotyledon), or two cotyledons (dicotyledon), or sometimes more than two.

cross-fertilization is fertilization by means of pollen produced in another flower.

cryptogam. One of the group of flowerless or non-seed-bearing plants, as a fern, fungus, moss, seaweed.

cutting. A shoot planted in soil or water for the purpose of making a new plant.

cyme. A flattish or broad flower-cluster in which the innermost or terminal flowers open first.

decumbent. Said of branches or stems that lop or lie over on the ground.

decurrent. Said of a leaf that runs down on the stem, thereby not having a distinct petiole.

dehiscence. The mode of opening, as of a seed-pod or an anther.

deliquescent. Said of trees in which the leader or main trunk disappears at the tree top, forking into several or many main branches.

determinate. See [centrifugal].

dichogamy. The condition when stamens and pistils in the same flower mature at different times; this prevents or hinders self-pollination. See [proterandrous] and [proterogynous].

diclinous. Said of flowers that are imperfect,—lacking either stamens or pistils.

dicotyledon. Having two cotyledons or seed-leaves.

digestion. Change in the food materials whereby they may be transported, or used in assimilation. Starch is changed into sugar in the plant by a process of digestion.

dimorphous. Of two forms; as flowers that bear two kinds of stamens.

diœcious. Said of plants that bear stamens and pistils in flowers on different plants.

drupe. A fleshy pericarp or fruit, containing a relatively large stone or pit, as peach, cherry, plum.

drupelet. A very small drupe, particularly one comprising part of an aggregate fruit, as a drupelet of raspberry.

embryo. The dormant plantlet comprising part of the seed. It is enclosed within the seed-coats. Its parts are the caulicle (or stemlet), cotyledons or seed-leaves, and plumule. The food may be stored in the embryo, or around the embryo (endosperm).

endogen. A plant of the monocotyledon class, not enlarging in diameter by means of outside rings; as palms. All grasses and lilies and orchids and cereal grains are of this kind. Now used, if at all, to express a general mode of growth rather than a class of plants. See [exogen].

endosperm. The food material that is packed around the embryo (rather than inside it) in the seed.

entomophilous. Said of flowers that are pollinated by insects.

environment. The surroundings; or the conditions in which a plant or animal lives. The environment comprises the soil, climate, and the influence of the other plants and animals with which or among which the plant or animal grows.

epicotyl. The internode or “joint” above the seed-leaves or cotyledons.

epidermis. The outermost layer or part of the cortex; the skin.

epigeal. Said of seeds (as common bean) in which the cotyledons or seed-leaves rise above ground in germination. See [hypogeal].

epiphyte. A plant that grows on another plant, or on other objects above ground, but which does not derive much or any of its nourishment from its host; an air-plant.

excurrent. Said of trees (as firs and spruces) in which the main trunk or leader continues through the tree top.

exogen (see [endogen]). Of the dicotyledon class, the stem enlarging by external layers or rings.

fertilization takes place in the flower when a pollen nucleus and an egg-cell nucleus unite in a forming ovule.

fibro-vascular. Bundles or strands of tissue composed of sieve-tubes, mechanical fibre and vessels or ducts.

filament. The stalk part of a stamen.

follicle. A single-cavity fruit or pod opening along its inner edge.

frond. A leaf of a fern and related plants.

fruit. In botany, the ripened ovary with the attached parts. All flowering plants, therefore, produce fruits. The term is also used for the ripened reproductive bodies of flowerless plants.

fruit-dot, sorus. A collection or cluster of sporangia, as in ferns.

function. What a plant or an organ does; how it works.

gamete. A cell or nucleus that takes part in fertilization.

gametophyte. The stage of the plant (as the prothallus) that bears or produces the sex organs; sexual stage of the plant.

gamopetalous. Said of a corolla with the petals united.

gamosepalous. Said of a calyx with the sepals united.

generation. The entire life period of a plant.

geotropism. Turning toward the earth, as the action of the roots.

glomerule. A dense globular or oblong flower-cluster in which the upper or inner flowers open first.

graft. A cutting inserted in another plant for the purpose of having it grow there.

gymnosperm (“naked seed”). A name applied to a group of plants (pines, spruces, cedars, and the like) in which the seeds are not contained in an ovary.

head. A very dense globular or oblong flower-cluster in which the outer flowers open first; often applied to any dense flower-cluster.

herb. A plant that never becomes woody and that dies to the ground, or dies entirely, in winter.

hilum. The scar or spot where the seed was attached to its stalk.

hip. The fruit of the rose, which is a hollowed torus containing the dry fruits or “seeds.”

homologous. Related to, or with, in origin or structure. Thus, a tendril of grape is homologous with a branch; a tendril of grape is analogous to a tendril of pea (similar in function), but not homologous, for one represents a branch (or flower-cluster) and the other represents a leaf.

host. A plant or animal on which another organism grows or feeds.

hypha (plural hyphæ). The threads of the mycelium of a fungus.

hypocotyl. The stem or internode below the seed-leaves.

hypogeal. Said of seeds (as garden pea) in which the cotyledons remain under ground in germination. See [epigeal].

imperfect flowers lack either stamens or pistils.

incomplete flowers lack one of the parts or series, as the calyx, corolla, stamens, or pistil.

indeterminate. See [centripetal].

indusium. The scale or lid covering a sorus, in ferns and allied plants.

inflorescence. Properly, the mode of flowering (page 160), but sometimes used in the sense of a flower-cluster.

involucre. A set or whorl of leaves or bracts beneath a flower or a cluster of flowers; sometimes looks like an outer or extra calyx.

irregular flowers have some members of one or more of the series unlike their fellows.

key fruit. See [samara].

labiate. Lipped; that is, divided into parts, as the lips of a mouth. Said usually of corollas that are lobed into two parts.

lateral. On the side; as a flower or leaf borne on the side of a shoot rather than at its end. See [terminal].

leaflet. One of the divisions or parts of a compound leaf.

legume. Like a follicle, but opening along both edges. In some cases, as in peanut, the pod does not actually open.

leguminous plants are those that bear legumes or true pods, as peas, beans, clovers, alfalfa, vetch, sweet pea, peanut, locusts, red-bud.

lenticel. Very small spots or corky elevations on young twigs, marking the place of former twig stomates.

locule. One cavity or “cell” in a pistil or anther.

loculicidal. Said of capsules when the carpels or compartments open between the partitions.

mesophyll. The parenchyma in the leaf.

micropyle. The place on the seed at which the pollen-tube entered when the seed was forming (when impregnation took place).

monocotyledon. Having one cotyledon or seed-leaf.

monœcious. Said of plants that bear the stamens and pistils in different flowers on the same plant.

mycelium. The vegetative part of a fungus, composed of threads or hyphæ.

mycorrhiza. A root covered with or bearing a fungus that aids the root in securing nourishment from the soil.

naked. Said of flowers that lack envelopes (calyx and corolla).

nectary. A cup, sac, or place in the flower in which nectar (or “honey”) is borne.

osmosis. The passing or diffusion of liquids or gases through membranes.

ovary. The lower enlarged part of the pistil, containing the ovules or forming seeds.

ovule. The young or forming seed.

palmate. Palm-like; said of venation that arises from the base of the leaf (top of petiole), or of leaflets similarly arranged.

panicle. A branching raceme. The lower or outer flowers open first; but the word is often used loosely.

pappus. The hair, plumes, bristles, or scales on the top of a dry fruit, particularly of a fruit (or “seed”) of the Compositæ or sunflower family.

parasite. A plant or animal that lives on a living host (as on a plant or an animal), taking its food from the host. See [saprophyte].

parenchyma. The general underlying tissue, from which other tissue arises.

pedicel. Stem of a single flower in a cluster.

peduncle. A flower-stem, supporting a solitary flower or a cluster of flowers.

perennial. A plant that lives more than two years, as most grasses, docks, alfalfa, asparagus, and all trees and shrubs.

perfect flowers bear both stamens and pistils.

pericarp. A ripened ovary, without counting attached parts.

personate. Masked; that is, so formed as to suggest a masked face, in labiate corollas with a large lower lip.

petal. One of the parts or leaves of the corolla.

petiole. Stem or stalk of a leaf.

petiolule. Stem of a leaflet.

phenogam (phænogam, phanerogam). A seed-bearing plant; that is, one of the seed-bearing or flowering group of plants.

phloem. Bark or soft bast tissue.

photosynthesis. The process whereby the carbon dioxide of the air is appropriated in the formation of material for plant growth.

phyllotaxy. Mode of arrangement of leaves or flowers on the plant or stem.

pinnate. Feather-like; said of leaves in which the veins strike off from a continuing midrib, or in which the leaflets are arranged in a similar order.

pistil. The innermost member in the flower, bearing the forming seeds.

pistillate. Of pistils only; a flower that contains pistils and no stamens, or a plant that bears only pistils.

plur-annual. A plant of a tropical or semi-tropical climate that is annual in a colder country only because it is killed by frost; as tomato, castor bean.

pollen. The dust or grains contained in the anther, which, falling on the stigma, grows and fertilizes the forming ovules.

pollination. The transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma. The transfer may be accomplished by wind, insects, birds, water (in the case of water plants), or by the natural falling of the pollen.

polypetalous (“many-petaled”). Said of a corolla with the petals not united.

polysepalous (“many-sepaled”). Said of a calyx with sepals not united.

pome. An apple-like or pear-like or quince-like fruit, with a five-carpeled or en-carpeled “core.”

proterandrous. Said of a flower when the anthers mature in advance of the pistils in the same flower.

proterogynous. Said of a flower when its pistils mature before its anthers.

prothallus (“first thallus”). The minute leaf-like body or organ produced by the germination of a spore, in ferns and allied plants. It bears the sex organs.

protoplasm. The living matter in plants. It is the living part of the cells, usually in a semi-fluid, translucent state.

pseud-annual. A plant that is apparently annual, but which is carried over winter by a bulb, tuber, or similar body; as potato, onion.

pyxis. A dry fruit or capsule in which the top comes off, like a cover to a jar.

raceme. A simple (unbranched) cluster in which the flowers are on short pedicels and open from the base upwards.

raphe. A ridge or elevation on some seeds caused by the seed-stalk and seed-coats growing together.

ray. The elongated corolla-limb of some members of the Compositæ family.

receptive. Said of a stigma when it is “ripe” or ready to receive the pollen.

regular flowers are those in which all the members of each series (as all the sepals, or all the petals, or all the stamens) are like each other in shape, size, and colour.

reinforced. See [accessory fruits].

respiration. Breathing; manifest by oxygen taken in and carbon dioxide given off.

rhizome. A rootstock; an underground root-like stem. It has joints, usually scales representing leaves, and is often thick and fleshy.

samara. A key fruit, being an indehiscent (not opening) fruit provided with a wing or wings.

saprophyte. A plant that lives on dead or decaying material. See parasite.

scape. A flower-stem rising directly from the crown of the plant at the surface of the ground or near it. A scape may have bracts.

self-fertilization or close-fertilization is fertilization by means of pollen produced in the same flower.

sepal. One of the parts or leaves of the calyx.

septicidal. A form of dehiscence or opening along the natural partitions of the capsule.

sessile. Sitting; without a stem, as a leaf without petiole, or a flower without pedicel or peduncle.

shrub. A low woody plant that does not have a distinct trunk. When a plant normally has a trunk, it is a tree.

silicle. A short, more or less circular, capsule of the mustard family.

silique. A long capsule of the mustard family.

society. An aggregation or company of plants, comprising a more or less distinct group.

sorus (plural sori). See [fruit-dot].

spadix. A spike of flowers (each flower usually minute), with a more or less fleshy axis, and usually accompanied by a spathe.

spathe. A corolla-like or involucre-like leaf or bract (or a pair of them) surrounding or accompanying a spadix. In the calla, the spathe is the large white flower-like part.

spermaphyte (“seed plant”). A seed-bearing plant; one of the flowering-plant class.

spike. A dense and slender flower-cluster in which the flowers open from below upwards.

sporangium (plural sporangia; spore-case). A body or receptacle holding spores.

spore. A reproductive or generative cell; in flowerless plants answering the purpose of a seed, but containing no embryo. It may not be the direct product of fertilization.

sporophyll (“spore leaf”). A member or part that bears spores.

sporophyte. The stage of the plant arising directly from the fertilized egg, and which ordinarily produces asexual spores (as the “plant” or conspicuous part of the fern or of a seed plant).

stamen. The pollen-bearing organ of the flower, of which the essential part is the anther (usually borne on a stem or filament).

staminate. Said of a flower that has stamens and no pistils.

stigma. The part of the pistil (usually on a stalk or style) on which the pollen germinates; it is sticky, rough, or hairy at maturity.

stipel. A stipule of a leaflet.

stipule. A leafy or scale-like appendage at the base of a petiole. Stipules are usually two in each case.

stomate, stoma (plural stomates or stomata). The openings on leaves and green parts through which gases pass; diffusion-pores or “breathing-pores.”

stone-fruit. A drupe.

strict. Said of a stem that grows straight up, without breaking into branches.

style. The stalk between the ovary and the stigma; sometimes not present.

syngenesious. Said of anthers when they cohere in a ring, as in the Compositæ, the style usually being inclosed.

tap-root. A single or leading strong root that runs straight down into the earth.

tendril. A slender coiling member of a plant that enables it to climb. A tendril may represent a branch, a petiole, a leaflet, a stipule, an entire leaf.

terminal. At the end; as a flower borne on the end of a shoot. See lateral.

thyrse. A compound, usually elongated or pyramidal flower-cluster in which the mode of inflorescence is mixed.

torus. The end of the flower-stalk (usually somewhat enlarged) to which the flower-parts are attached; receptacle.

transpiration. Evaporation or loss of water from plants.

umbel. A flower-cluster opening from the outside, in which the branches or stems arise from one place, as the rays of an opened umbrella.

umbellet. A small umbel, comprising part of a larger or compound umbel.

valve. One of the integral parts into which a fruit or an anther naturally splits, or into which it is divided.

venation. The mode or fashion of veining, as in a leaf or petal.

xylem. Wood tissue.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations.
Illustrations without captions have had a description added, this is denoted with parentheses.
The index was not checked for correct page references.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Pg. [13]	“dstinguishes” replaced with “distinguishes”.
Pg. [29]	“with experiment” replaced with “with the experiment”.
Pg. [46]	“grow” replaced with “grows”.
Pg. [50]	“lop over” replaced with “flop over”.
Pg. [86]	“sphercal” replaced with “spherical”.
Pg. [94]	“Chlorohyll” replaced with “Chlorophyll”.
Pg. [111]	“buds of the apple and” changed to “buds of the apricot and” to match figure caption.
Pg. [131]	“cobea” replaced with “cobaea”
Pg.[ 135]	“tigma” replaced with “stigma”.
Pg. [170]	“aranged” replaced with “arranged”.
Pg. [186]	“acomplished” replaced with “accomplished”.
Pg. [188]	“is this case” replaced with “in this case”.
Pp. [205,208]	Corrected location of “scion” from Pg.[ 205] to Pg. [208].