a textbook of general botany

750 Pages·2003·16.95 MB·English

A TEXTBOOK OF
GENERAL BOTANY
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
OF CANADA, LIMITED
TORONTO

A TEXTBOOK
OF
GENERAL BOTANY

BY
GILBERT M. SMITH
STANFORD UNIVERCITY

JAMES B. OVERTON, EDWARD. M. GILBERT,
ROLLIN H. DENNISTON, GEORGE S. BRYAN,
AND CHARLES E. ALLEN
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

Third Edition

NEW YORK

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1935
THIRD EDITION COPYRIGHTED, 1935,

BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
_________

All rights reserved-no part of this book may be
reproduced in any form without permission in
writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who wishes to quote brief passages in connection
with a review written for inclusion in magazine or
newspaper.
________

Printed in the United States of America

Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1935

Copyrighted, 1923.
By Gilbert M. Smith

First edition copyrighted, 1924; second edition, 1928,
By The Macmillan Company.

First edition published July, 1924; second edition, September,
1928.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

In once more applying themselves to the task of
revision, the authors have had, in addition to their own and
their colleagues' experience, the helpful advice of many users
of this textbook the country over. With the suggestions so
received in mind, the book has undergone what proved to be
an extensive rewriting. While the general plan of treatment
adopted in previous editions has been retained, some changes
have been made in order of topics, as well as in the division
and arrangement of chapters.
One problem met in revising a textbook after a lapse of
years is that of incorporating statements of new discoveries
and new viewpoints without a material increase in bulk. That
problem, in the present instance, has offered a real difficulty.
We have attempted to meet it by the omission of such topics
as, to the best of our information and experience, could with
least ill effect be spared. For example, we have omitted from
the present edition the discussion of Myxobacteria and the
chapter on Myxomycetes; and detailed inspection will show
other deletions. In this matter of selection of material to be
incorporated in an elementary course perhaps no two teachers
will agree in all respects; and we can not hope to avoid
criticism either as to what we have or as to what we have not
included.
Another problem of selection is presented by
differences between various institutions as to the amount of
time available for an elementary course. We have tried to
include material substantially sufficient for a four- or five-credit
course extending through an academic year. The attempt has
been made to write many of the chapters so that they can be
used in a briefer course (for a quarter or a semester without
too much dependence upon what precedes or follows.
Allowing again for the certainty of differences of opinion in this
matter of selection, it may be of assistance to some users to
note that portions of the previous edition substantially
corresponding to the following chapters and sections of the
present book have been used by some of the authors in a
one-semester course:
Chapters I-IV; Chapter V, §§ 34, 35, 37-46, 50; Chapter VI;
Chapter VII, §§ 59-62, 64, 66-68; Chapters VIII, IX; Chapter X,
§§ 95-99, 101-104; Chapters XI-X111; Chapter XIV, §§
132-1.38,149-151; Chapter XVIII; Chapter XIX, §§ 203-206;
Chapter XXI,§§ 225-227; Chapter XXIV, §§ 259-264; Chapter
XXV; Chap -ter XXVI, §§ 277-285; Chapter XXVIII, ~§§
306-314; Chapter XXIX; Chapter XXX, §§ 339-347; Chapter
XXXI, §§ 351,352, 358, 359, 364, 366, 370. `
Again it is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance
and suggestions of many members, past and present, of the
Department of Botany of the University of Wisconsin. The aid
of members of other departments also has been freely asked
and freely rendered. Especially should we mention the helpful
advice given by Professor E. B. Fred and others of the
Department of Agricultural Bacteriology in the preparation of
Chapter XVIII
The photographs used in this edition, except as
otherwise noted, were made by E. M. Gilbert, G. O. Cooper,
and D. F. McAlister. Most of the floral drawings accompanying
Chapter XXXI were made by the late W. S. Atkinson. Many
drawings made for the second edition and retained in the
present one were by Zona Briggs. Most of the new drawings in
this edition are by Jane M. Gilbert. Other drawings and
diagrams are in general by G. M. Smith. Special
acknowledgment is made to the McGraw-Hill Book Company
for permission to use Figure 177; to John Wiley and Company
for permission to reproduce Figure 407; to the American
Journal of Forestry for Figures 56 and 421-423; to Dr. Eloise
Gerry and Arthur Koehler for the photographs credited to the
Forest Products Laboratory; to Dr. Forrest Shreve for Figure
50; to Professor G. J. Peirce for Figure 55; to Dr. D. T. Mac-
dougal for Figures 95 and 100; to Dr. B. P. Domogalla for Fig-
ure 187; to the Department of Plant Pathology of the University
of Wisconsin for Figures 204, 223, 225, 226, 424-426, and
428; to Dr. K. L. Mahony for Figure 347; to Dr. D. C. Cooper
for Figure 397, A and B; to Dr. A. F. Blakeslee for Figure 402;
to Professor E. J. Kraus for Figures 408 and 409; and to Mr.
Frank M. Campbell for Figure 411.
FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

This book is an outgrowth of the experience of the
authors in the teaching of elementary botany at the University
of Wisconsin. For the past three years the text, in successively
revised form, has. been used in our first-year courses.
In its preparation, we have been guided by the view
that the subject of botany should be presented as a unit. The
beginning student is not interested in, and should not he
burdened with, distinctions between the artificially abstracted
phases of the subject-morphology, physiology, ecology, and
the like--distinctions which have their place in defining and
limiting the scope of more advanced and special courses.
Especially should the study of structure and that of function be
intimately correlated in an elementary course.
It is hardly necessary, in the present state of
development of the teaching of science, to point out that forms
selected for study should, -whenever possible, be such as are
already known to the student, either because of their
widespread occurrence in nature or in cultivation, or because
of their economic importance; or that general conceptions
should be illustrated by familiar facts. Particularly-in
botany-should the beginning of the study be an observation of
everyday plants. Considerations such as these have guided us
in the choice of material to be used in an elementary course.
In a subject the teaching of which involves the introduction of
the student to many new concepts, the use of a new
terminology is unavoidable. However, the authors realize that
each new term imposes an additional burden upon the student
and correspondingly handicaps him in the. mastery of the
subject matter. - We have attempted, therefore, to avoid
technical terms except those which were found indispensable
to a clear presentation.
Only such facts and conceptions have been introduced
as our experience has shown can be successfully treated in
the course of the beginning year. Necessarily the subject
matter has been arranged in what seems to the authors a
logical order, on the assumption of a continuous year's course.
However, in many institutions, conditions necessitate the
offering of a briefer elementary course in botany. We have
tried to provide for the possibility of such a course by so
treating various topics that, within reasonable limits, certain
chapters and portions of chapters may be omitted without
destroying the continuity of the course or impairing the utility of
the later parts of the book.