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only $i.S5 This is a fully illustrated basic introduction to the fascinating science of botany, presenting, in non-technical language, the classifications of plants, analyses of plant structures and activities, geographical distribution, geneti and evolution. _ I H p g * BOTANY MADE SIMPLE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780385011884 BOTANY MADE SIMPLE VICTOR A. GREULACH, Ph.D. Professor of Botany, The University of North Carolina DRAWINGS BY CHARLES C. CLARE, Jr. The New York Botanical Garden 1968 MADE SIMPLE BOOKS DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC. GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-11764 Copyright © 1968 by Doubleday & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America First Edition ABOUT THIS BOOK This hook represents an effort to survey the science of botany in a simple and non¬ technical way so that it will be understandable by the reader who has had a minimum of formal training in the subject, and yet in great enough detail so that it is more than just a skeleton outline. The aim has been to include botanical facts and principles that could reasonably be expected to constitute part of the general store of knowledge of any educated citizen, and to omit technical details that are of interest and importance only to professional botanists. Where detailed facts are included they are designed to provide the foundation for important general principles and concepts. Every effort has been made to make the book as up-to-date as possible, and many of the more im¬ portant advances of recent research are included. If your only knowledge of botany has been the relatively small amount included in high-school biology courses or introductory college biology courses (as is true for per¬ haps most people), the reading of Botany Made Simple may surprise you pleasantly with respect to the nature and scope of modern botany. Indeed, you may find botany much more interesting than you had supposed it would be. You may be surprised, too, to learn that botany is not just a matter of classifying and identifying plants and that horticulture and agriculture, though they are applied botanical sciences, are not really the core of the science of botany. In any event, if this book brings to you a better under¬ standing and appreciation of plants as a most important part of the world in which we live it will have achieved its goal. It is our hope that your reading of this book will be only the beginning of your interest in botany and that you will want to go on and read some of the references listed at the end of the book, and perhaps also to engage in one of the botanical hobbies that have proved to be fascinating to many people. Although this book has been written so that it should be comprehensible without any previous knowledge of botany or other biological sciences, it has been impossible to write Chapter 7 and to a lesser extent Chapters 6 and 13 without assuming at least an elementary knowledge of chemistry on the part of the reader. Those who lack such knowledge will profit by the reading of Chemistry Made Simple or a comparable intro¬ duction to chemistry before undertaking these chapters. However, even with no knowl¬ edge of chemistry, the general principles and concepts in these chapters should be under¬ standable although the chemical aspects may remain rather vague. —Victor A. Greulach CONTENTS About This Book. 5 Classification of Plants.33 The Broader Classification of the Plant Kingdom.34 CHAPTER 1 Smaller Categories of Plant First Families of the Plant Kingdom 11 Classification.34 Grass Family (Gramineae) . 11 Scientific and Common Names .... 35 Pine Family (Pinaceae) .... 12 Mallow Family (Malvaceae) . 12 CHAPTER 3 Pea Family (Leguminosae) . 13 Nightshade Family (Solanaceae) . 13 The Vegetative Organs of Flowering Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceae) . 14 Plants.36 Rose Family (Rosaceae) 14 Plant Cells.36 Madder Family (Rubiaceae) . 15 Meristematic Cells.36 Yeast Family (Saccharomycetaceae) 15 Parenchyma Cells.38 Blue Mold Family (Aspergillaceae) 15 Parenchyma-type Cells.39 Other Important Families 16 Sieve Cells.40 Living and Dead Cells.40 Cork Cells.40 CHAPTER 2 Stone Cells.40 The Kinds of Plants. 18 Fibers.40 Non-vascular Plants. 18 Tracheids.40 Blue-Green Algae. 18 Vessel Elements.40 The Euglenoids. 19 Cell Size.41 Green Algae. 19 Stems .41 Diatoms and Their Relatives . 21 External Stem Structure.42 The Dinoflagellates and Relatives . 21 Internal Stem Structure.44 The Brown Algae. 22 Secondary Tissues of Woody Stems . . 45 The Red Algae. 22 Modified Stems.48 Bacteria. 23 Stems as Means of Vegetative Slime Molds. 24 Propagation.48 The True Fungi. 25 Roots .50 Mosses and Liverworts .... 28 External Root Structure.50 Vascular Plants . 29 Internal Root Structure.50 The Psilophytes. 30 Secondary Growth of Woody Roots . . 51 The Club Mosses. 31 Modified Roots.51 The Horsetails. 31 Roots as Means of Vegetative The Ferns . 32 Propagation.52 The Conifers (Gymnosperms) . 32 Leaves.53 The Flowering Plants (Angiosperms) 32 External Leaf Structures.53 8 Contents Internal Structure of Leaves .... 55 Uses of Mineral Elements by Plants ... 82 Modified Leaves.55 Mineral Deficiency Symptoms .... 83 Vegetative Propagation by Means of The Absorption of Mineral Salts .... 83 Leaves.56 The Translocation of Mineral Salts ... 83 Fertilizers and Their Use.84 Ftydroponics.84 CHAPTER 4 The Reproductive Organs of Flowering CHAPTER 7 Plants.57 Flowers.57 Plant Activities Related to Foods . . 86 Flower Structure.57 What Are Foods?.86 Modified Flowers.58 Photosynthesis.87 Inflorescences.59 The Importance of Photosynthesis ... 87 Reproductive Processes of Flowers . . 61 The Magnitude of Photosynthesis ... 88 Seeds.64 The Nature of the Photosynthetic Fruits.66 Process.88 Fleshy Fruits.67 The P/R Ratio.90 Dry Fruits.67 Factors Affecting the Rate of Significance of Fruits.68 Photosynthesis.90 Respiration.91 Energy Sources of Plants.92 The Process of Respiration.92 CHAPTER 5 Anaerobic Respiration.94 Plant Activities Related to Water ... 69 Factors Influencing the Rate of Diffusion of Water.69 Respiration.95 Osmosis.72 Assimilation.95 Osmosis in Plant Cells.73 Food Interconversions.96 Turgor Pressure of Plant Cells .... 73 Synthesis of Carbohydrates.96 Plasmolysis.74 Synthesis of Fats.97 Imbibition .74 Synthesis of Proteins.98 The Loss of Water by Plants .... 74 Digestion.98 Magnitude of Transpiration.75 Food Accumulation.99 Stomates and Transpiration.75 The Significance of Transpiration ... 76 Permanent and Temporary Wilting . . 76 The Translocation of Water.76 CHAPTER 8 Root Pressure.77 Plant Growth.101 Shoot Tension.77 The Cellular Aspects of Growth . . . . 102 The Absorption of Water.78 Cell Division.102 Active Absorption.78 Cell Enlargement.104 Passive Absorption.78 Cell Differentiation.104 Soil Water.79 Plant Growth Substances.104 Auxins.io5 Gibberellins.106 CHAPTER 6 Synthetic Growth Substances .... 107 Practical Uses of Growth Substances . . 107 Plant Activities Related to Mineral Growth Correlations.107 Elements.81 Regeneration.108 The Essential Elements.81 Dormancy.j 08 Mineral Nutrient Solutions.82 Growth Periodicity.109