Herbarium

“ Where weathering is still an important factor, as in mountains, the initial and intermediate formations which lead to the final grassland or forest are often in evidence. After a formation herbarium of each stage has been made in the way indicated, a succession herbarium is obtained merely by arranging the various herbaria in the sequence of the developmental stages. ”

“ A good practical botanist must be educated among the wild scenes of nature, while a finished theoretical one requires the additional assistance of gardens and books, to which must be superadded the frequent use of a good herbarium. When plants are well dried, the original forms and positions of even their minutest parts, though not their colours, may at any time be restored by immersion in hot water. ”

“ The principal value of a herbarium is that one has it always on hand for reference when the living flower cannot be studied. After the summer comes winter. My young lady who threw away her flowers forgot their names during the winter. She could not help forgetting some of them, for the botanical names of flowers are often hard to learn, being composed of Latin or Greek words, or of proper names with Latin terminations ”

“ When of three or more seasons, the plant is perennial. Examples of annuals are pigweed, bean, pea, garden sunflower; of biennials, evening primrose, mullein, teasel; of perennials, dock, most meadow grasses, cat-tail, and all shrubs and trees.
Duration of the Plant Body.—Plant structures which are more or less soft and which die at the close of the season are said to be herbaceous, in contradistinction to being ligneous or woody. A plant which is herbaceous to the ground is called an herb; but an herb may have a woody or perennial root, in which case it is called an herbaceous perennial. ”

“ They never grow into branches, but detach themselves when full grown, fall to the ground, and take root there to form new plants.
Fig. 110. Bulblets in the axils of leaves of a Tiger Lily.
117. Consolidated Vegetation. An ordinary herb, shrub, or tree is evidently constructed on the plan developing an extensive surface. In fleshy rootstocks, tubers, corms, and bulbs, the more enduring portion of the plant is concentrated, and reduced for the time of struggle (as against drought, heat, or cold) to a small amount of exposed surface, and this mostly sheltered in the soil. ”

“ In such places we are faced with a vegetation exhibiting a great number of species and a marked variety of form, and by no means so easy to correlate with its environment as those which we have been considering. In a wide sense, the nature of the vegetation is largely dependent on the degree of aeration of the water and the amount of dissolved mineral salts which it contains, an increase of either (within limits) resulting in a richer flora. ”

“ This plant is the first that vegetates on naked rocks, covering them with a kind of tapestry, and draws its nourishment perhaps chiefly from the air; after it perishes, earth enough is left for other mosses to root themselves; and after some ages a soil is produced sufficient for the growth of more succulent and large vegetables. In this manner perhaps the whole earth has been gradually covered with vegetation, after it was raised out of the primeval ocean by subterraneous fires. ”

“ Grasses grow in the same way, and so do orchids, lilies, hyacinths, daffodils, iris, flag-root, cat's-tails, and many of our pretty spring wild flowers—-the yellow dog-toothed violet, lily-of-the-valley, Solomon's-seal, etc. Our grains—corn, wheat, oats, rye—are humble but useful members of this same grand division of Endogens. All other trees and herbs which have bark, wood, and pith, and which when long lived increase by additional rings of wood under the bark, are Exogens. ”

“ In this second edition, the plants Amaryllis, Orchis, and Cannabis are inserted with two additional prints of flowers; some alterations are made in Gloriosa, and Tulipa; and the description of the Salt-mines in Poland is removed to the first poem on the Economy of Vegetation.
PREFACE. Linneus has divided the vegetable world into 24 Classes; these Classes into about 120 Orders; these Orders contain about 2000 Families, or Genera; and these Families about 20,000 Species; besides the innumerable Varieties, which the accidents of climate or cultivation have added to these Species. ”

“ And in the woods at this season you find the yellow adder’s tongue, spring beauty, anemone, wake-robin, Jack-in-the-pulpit, wild ginger, and Solomon’s seal. Each of these plants has stores of food hidden in its [Pg 217] underground stem. This may take the shape of a bulb, or a tuber, or a rootstock; but in any case it shows you at once that it is a little storehouse of food.
A collection of the different kinds of underground stems which serve as storehouses for the early-flowering plants would be quite as interesting to work over as a collection of plant packages. ”

“ The types that lay latent in the oldest vegetation have simply been separated and perfected; progressive development has been gradually led along a series of intricate but constantly diverging lines that lead out and up, and finally terminate in the endless graded ranks and profuse varieties which constitute the grand flora—the grandest the world has ever seen—that annually buds and blooms, and bears its wealth of leaf and fruit for you and me, provided only we appreciate it all. ”

“ When we take into consideration the multitude of species which compose the vegetable kingdom, even in any one country or climate, it is obvious that some arrangement, some regular mode of naming and distinguishing them, must be very desirable, and even necessary, for retaining them in our own memory, or for communicating to others any thing concerning them. Yet the antients have scarcely used any further classification of plants than the vague and superficial division into trees, shrubs and herbs, except a consideration of their places of growth, and also of their qualities. ”

“ In the narrow oblong beds formed by these paths plant solid rows of herbs, each variety by itself, with no attempt at diversity of design. You can thus walk among them, and into them, and smell them in their concentrated strength, and you can gather them at ease. On the bank can be placed the creeping Thyme, and other low-running herbs. Medicinal shrubs should be the companions of the herbs; plant these as you will, according to their growth and habit, making them give variety of outline to the herb garden. ”

“ In each of his coloured drawings of sods of turf, known as “das grosse Rasenstück,” and “das kleine Rasenstück,” a tangled group of growing plants is portrayed exactly as it occurred in nature, with a marvellous combination of artistic charm and scientific accuracy. Prof. Killermann has been at pains to identify the genus and species of almost every plant represented, and has described the drawings as “das erste Denkmal der Pflanzenökologie.” ”

“ To all the foregoing secretions of vegetables may be added those on which their various colours depend. We can but imperfectly account for the green so universal in their herbage, but we may gratefully acknowledge the beneficence of the Creator in clothing the earth with a colour the most pleasing and the least fatiguing to our eyes. We may be dazzled with the brilliancy of a flower-garden, but we repose at leisure on the verdure of a grove or meadow. Of all greens the most delicate and beautiful perhaps is displayed by several umbelliferous plants under our hedges in the spring. ”

“ The commonest kind of leaf, which therefore may be taken as the type or pattern, is an expanded green body, by means of which the plant exposes to the air and light the matters which it imbibes, exhales certain portions, and assimilates the residue into vegetable matter for its nourishment and growth.
119. But the fact is already familiar (10-30) that leaves occur under other forms and serve for other uses,—for the storage of food already assimilated, as in thickened seed-leaves and bulb-scales; for covering, as in bud-scales ”

“ When we reflect upon the quantity of moss which covers the hardest stones, the trunks of trees, and the most barren places;—when we consider the quantity of vegetables upon the surface of the earth; the different species of flowers which delight and refresh us; the trees and bushes, add to these the aquatic plants, some of which exceed a hair in fineness;—we may be able to form some idea of the multitude of plants in the vegetable kingdom. All these species grow up, and are preserved without detriment or injury, each having that place assigned it, which is most suited to its properties. ”

“ The lobes, exhausted of their farinaceous matter, gradually dry, and fall off of themselves in a few weeks, when the plant has no further need of their assistance.—Certain herbs which grow on the mountains are of a very peculiar nature: their duration being very short, it often happens that the seed has not time to ripen; and, that the species may not be lost, the bud which contains the germ is formed upon the top of the plant, puts forth leaves, falls, and takes root. ”

“ Plants must be collected both in flower and in fruit, with the underground parts as perfect as may be. Seedlings and rosettes should be included whenever present. In pressing, one or two leaves should be arranged with the lower side uppermost to admit of the ready comparison of both surfaces. Opened flowers are valuable for flower biology, while seeds and fruits are desirable for showing migration contrivances. The ferns, mosses, and lichens of the formation should be fully represented, together with the more important fungi and algae. ”

“ In autumn the leaves change to a uniform reddish tinge, which has a fine effect, contrasted with the numerous pendent purple berries. This is a very hardy plant, requiring hardly any attention and growing in almost any kind of soil. Multiplied either by seed or by division. It forms a very free and vigorous mass of vegetation, and, though perhaps scarcely refined enough in leaf to justify its being recommended for flower-garden use, no plant is more worthy of a place wherever a rich herbaceous vegetation is desired ”

“ Actually what are ordinarily thought of as plants make up only a fraction of the great plant world. The fact that our familiar roadside and garden plants produce blossoms followed by a fruit and seed, such as peas and beans and all the ordinary flora of any region, separates them at once from that other large group of plants that do not. Common examples of the latter class are the green scum on the ponds, moss, seaweed, the rust on wheat, yeast, disease-causing bacteria, the smallest of all known plants, and many others. ”

“ Ornamental plants, or those commonly cultivated in flower gardens, will not stock the school gardens contemplated by the committee. Native wild plants, such as ferns, grasses, asters, goldenrods, violets, native shrubs, and economic plants, such as grains, vegetable roots, and leguminous and cucurbitaceous plants, must be the stock of the gardens. ”

“ This order which is very generally distributed over the globe, being found in every quarter of it, and in almost every kind of soil and climate, abounds in species, but is very limited in the number of genera, the latter, standing in the proportion of only about 1 to 19 or 20 of the former, on whole order. Among its species every form of vegetation is found, from the very minute annual scarcely 3 inches high, up to large sized trees. Many of these are milky plants, with round stems, and ex-stipulate, scattered, simple, entire, sessile, leaves, or having the limb attenuated into a short petiol. ”

“ In nearly all our gardens we have a great deal of surface wholly wasted—wide spaces in the shrubbery frequently dug over in the winter, plantations, grass–walks, hedgerows, rough banks, slopes, etc., which hitherto have grown only grass and weeds, and on these a rich garden flora may be grown. Hundreds of the more vigorous and handsome herbaceous plants that exist will thrive in these places and do further good in exterminating weeds and preventing the need of digging. ”

“ Herbs are plants which die to the ground in winter. They may be annual, biennial, or perennial. For a list of annual Herbs suitable for the flower garden, see the articles on Annuals and Bedding. A border or free mass of perennial Herbs is one of the charms of any place. It is informal, easy of care, and self-sustaining. The large part of the mass should be composed of common and hardy things—wild or from gardens—and incidental features may be made of the choicer and rarer exotics. In most cases, plants look better when judiciously mixed than when planted one kind in a bed. See Border. ”

“ The principal causes which enable a certain assemblage of plants thus to maintain their ground against all others depend, as is well known, on the relations between the physiological nature of each species, and the climate, exposure, soil, and other physical conditions of the locality. Some plants live only on rocks, others in meadows, a third class in marshes. Of the latter, some delight in a fresh-water morass,—others in salt marshes, where their roots may copiously absorb saline particles. ”

“ The flower-stem is more than 2 ft. high, and very much branched; the branches commencing at from 4 ins. to 8 ins. above the ground, and forming a large and exceedingly handsome panicle of flowers of a light-blue colour, tinged with the greyish hue of the numerous membranous bracts and thin dry calyces. A well-drained, sandy soil, in an open sunny position, is the best for this plant, which, however, grows in any ordinary garden-soil, and is admirably adapted for naturalisation or grouping with the acanthuses, tritomas, etc., the effect of the inflorescence being very remarkable. ”