{{B}}Plants and Mankind{{/B}} Botany, the study
of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. We
don’t know what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can
observe of preindustrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of
plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. They have always been
enormously important to the welfare of people, not only for food, but also for
clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and many other purposes.
Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon recognize hundreds of plants and
know many properties of each. To them botany has no name and is probably not
even recognized as a special branch of "k
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