From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Botany is the branch of biology concerned with the scientific study of plants. Traditionally, botanists studied all organisms that were not generally regarded as animal; that is, they studied organisms that appeared immobile or attached to a substratum. However, advances in knowledge about the myriad forms of life have created other areas of specialized study separate from Botany for these "plant-like" organisms: fungi are studied now as the field of Mycology; bacteria and viruses are studied in Microbiology; and algae are now treated within the field of Phycology (or Algology). Organisms in these three groups — most algae, fungi, and microbes — are no longer considered to be in the Plant Kingdom. However, attention is still given to them by botanists.
Among the earliest of botanical works, written around 300 BC, are two large treatises by Theophrastus: On the History of Plants (Historia Plantarum) and On the Causes of Plants. Together these books constitute the most important contribution to botanical science during antiquity and on into the Middle Ages.
In 1665, using an early microscope, Robert Hooke discovered cells in cork; then a short time later in living plant tissue. Upon viewing a thin slice of cork, he wrote:
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