TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXT-BOOKS
EDITED BY
A. F. NIGHTINGALE, PH. D.
SUPERINTENDENT OF HIGH
SCHOOLS, CHICAGO
OTHER BOTANICAL WORKS
BY DR. JOHN M. COULTER.
- PLANT RELATIONS.
- A First Book of Botany.
12mo. Cloth, $1.10.
- A First Book of Botany.
- PLANT STRUCTURES.
- A Second Book of Botany
12mo. Cloth, $1.20.
- A Second Book of Botany
- PLANT STUDIES.
- An Elementary Botany.
12mo. Cloth, $1.25.
- An Elementary Botany.
- PLANTS.
- A Text-Book of Botany.
12mo. Cloth, $1.80.
- A Text-Book of Botany.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
NEW YORK.
TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXT-BOOKS
AN
ANALYTICAL KEY
TO SOME
OF THE COMMON WILD AND CULTIVATED SPECIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS
BYJOHN M. COULTER
, A. M., PH. D.HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY IN
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1900
COPYRIGHT, 1900
BY D. APPLETON
AND COMPANY
PREFACE
ONE purpose of this little pamphlet is to enable the beginning student to discover the names of some of the most common seed-plants likely to occur wild in his vicinity or in common cultivation. Only those plants have been included which bloom in the spring or early summer, as such plants form the most usual and the easiest introduction to such work.
The region covered is that of the standard manuals for the Northern States—viz., the district north of the northern boundaries of North Carolina and Tennessee and west to the 100th meridian. This does not mean that many of the plants do not occur south and west of this area, so that contiguous States may use the Key to some extent.
To select a few hundred plants from so large an area is to run the risk of omitting some of the most common or most available plants of some regions. Teachers are urged, therefore, to send the names of additional plants which their experience may have found useful, that they may be included in subsequent editions. It is also strongly urged upon every teacher to obtain for reference one or both of the standard manuals for the region, in order that the Key may be supplemented and a greater range of plants examined.
As the Key contains only a small percentage of the plants of any region, it will be necessary for the teacher to select the forms, and not to attempt to name the plants indiscriminately. Unless this is done, the result will be confusion and page: vi[View Page vi]disappointment. It should be clearly understood, also, that to obtain the names of plants is not the chief service to be rendered by the Key. It is intended to illustrate those structures of seed-plants which are used in their classification, and so lead to some conception of the principal groups. To learn to recognize a group of plants is far better than to remember the name of a species.
It is taken for granted that the teacher knows how to use a simple key, directions for which are far more effectively given with a plant in hand than by any amount of printed text. It must also be taken for granted that the teacher is familiar with the common terms used in descriptions. Some of these are defined in the Key, and others will be found in any good dictionary. Only such are used as seem absolutely necessary.
The two standard manuals for the region are Gray's Manual and Britton's Manual. In many cases these two manuals give different names to the same plant. As the Key is intended as an introduction to either of them, the names in both are given when they differ, the first being the name used in the older Gray's Manual, the second the name used in the more recent Britton's Manual. It will be noticed that sometimes the name of the genus differs, and sometimes only the name of the species.
The order in which the families are given is known as the order of Engler and Prantl, and differs from that found in Gray's Manual. It begins with what are regarded as plants of lower rank and advances to the highest, and is thought to express natural relationships better than any order yet proposed.
JOHN M. COULTER.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO,
March, 1900.
KEY TO THE FAMILIES
I. MONOCOTYLEDONS
Parts of the flower usually in threes (never in fives); leaves mostly parallel-veined; ours all herbs except Smilaceœ.
1. Flowers usually with neither calyx nor corolla and massed upon a more or less fleshy axis (spadix)
2. Flowers with calyx and corolla alike (perianth) or different, not collected upon a spadix
a. Ovary superior (appearing within the flower)
b. Ovary inferior (appearing below the flower)
- Stamens 3 Iridaceæ 16
- Stamens 6 Amaryllidaceæ 15
- Stamens 1 or 2 and massed with the style; flowers very irregular Orchidaceæ 17
II. DICOTYLEDONS
Parts of the flower usually in fives or fours; leaves mostly net-veined.
A. ARCHICHLAMYDEÆ
Corolla either wanting (apetalous) or of separate petals (polypetalous).
1. Corolla wanting, and sometimes the calyx also (naked)
a. Flowers in aments (dense scaly spikes); trees or shrubs
b. Flowers not in aments
* Shrubs or trees
** Herbs; sepals sometimes petal-like
2. Calyx and corolla both present, the latter of separate petals (polypetalous)
a. Stamens more than 10
b. Stamens not more than 10
B. SYMPETALÆ
Corolla with petals united (sympetalous), at least at base.
1. Stamens more numerous than the lobes of the corolla
2. Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla or fewer
- Stamens opposite the corolla lobes Primulaceæ 61
- Stamens alternate with the corolla lobes, or fewer.
a. Ovary superior (appearing within the flower)
b. Ovary inferior (appearing below the flower)
