# Elements of Botany

An audiobook by Asa Gray, read by LibriVox volunteers (7 h 45 min, English).

The book is intended to ground beginners in Structural Botany and the principles of vegetable life, mainly as concerns Flowering or Phanerogamous plants, with which botanical instruction should always begin; also to be a companion and interpreter to the Manuals and Floras by which the student threads his flowery way to a clear knowledge of the surrounding vegetable creation. Such a book, like a grammar, must needs abound in technical words, which thus arrayed may seem formidable; nevertheless, if rightly apprehended, this treatise should teach that the study of botany is not the learning of names and terms, but the acquisition of knowledge and ideas. No effort should be made to commit technical terms to memory. Any term used in describing a plant or explaining its structure can be looked up when it is wanted, and that should suffice. On the other hand, plans of structure, types, adaptations, and modifications, once understood, are not readily forgotten; and they give meaning and interest to the technical terms used in explaining them. - Summary by Asa Gray

[Listen](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/librivox/12544)
[Read the book](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/gutenberg/33757/read)

## Chapters

1. SECTION I. INTRODUCTORY (5:23): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_01_gray_64kb.mp3
2. SECTION II. FLAX AS A PATTERN PLANT (9:02): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_02_gray_64kb.mp3
3. SECTION III. MORPHOLOGY OF SEEDLINGS (27:09): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_03_gray_64kb.mp3
4. SECTION IV. GROWTH FROM BUDS; BRANCHING (16:25): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_04_gray_64kb.mp3
5. SECTION V. ROOTS (14:47): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_05_gray_64kb.mp3
6. SECTION VI. STEMS (25:17): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_06_gray_64kb.mp3
7. SECTION VII. LEAVES -Part 1 (33:02): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_07_gray_64kb.mp3
8. SECTION VII. LEAVES -Part 2-4 (20:42): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_08_gray_64kb.mp3
9. SECTION VIII. FLOWERS. Part 1-3 (28:44): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_09_gray_64kb.mp3
10. SECTION VIII. FLOWERS. Part 4-5 (23:54): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_10_gray_64kb.mp3
11. SECTION IX. STAMENS IN PARTICULAR (18:03): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_11_gray_64kb.mp3
12. SECTION X. PISTILS IN PARTICULAR (15:29): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_12_gray_64kb.mp3
13. SECTION XI. OVULES (7:28): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_13_gray_64kb.mp3
14. SECTION XII. MODIFICATIONS OF THE RECEPTACLE (6:05): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_14_gray_64kb.mp3
15. SECTION XIII. FERTILIZATION (11:12): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_15_gray_64kb.mp3
16. SECTION XIV. THE FRUIT (19:43): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_16_gray_64kb.mp3
17. SECTION XV. THE SEED (7:05): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_17_gray_64kb.mp3
18. SECTION XVI. VEGETABLE LIFE AND WORK. Parts 1-4 (44:53): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_18_gray_64kb.mp3
19. SECTION XVI. VEGETABLE LIFE AND WORK. Parts 5-6 (37:01): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_19_gray_64kb.mp3
20. SECTION XVII. CRYPTOGAMOUS OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS (43:10): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_20_gray_64kb.mp3
21. SECTION XVIII. CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE (31:33): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_21_gray_64kb.mp3
22. SECTION XIX. BOTANICAL WORK (19:10): https://archive.org/download/elements_of_botany_1805_librivox/botany_22_gray_64kb.mp3