Introduction and historical development of botany
Botany is a branch of biology that deals with the study of plants or in more biological terms with the study of kingdom Plantae. Plants are multi-cellular organisms whose main function is to perform photosynthesis. Formerly living organisms like algae, bacteria, and fungi were included in this branch of science. However, today still, these organisms are considered as being botanical while studying due to their past significance and the fact that there are many characteristics in them that are similar in plants. Furthermore, these are still included in botany to make the biological sciences less fragmented and easier in classification.
Botany deals with the study of all types of plants, from big to small, from simple to complex and is also concerned with studying the relative relationships and interactions of the plants with their environment forming a complex community not just within themselves, but also with the other living beings.
In this process the plants makes oxygen from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide in the air
This is termed as ecology
With respect to its historical origin, the study of botany is dated nearly ten thousand years old. With the first cultivation of plants, like food crops and other plants, botany originated. It was not until approximately in 300BC that humans made use of plants for their own domestic and medicinal interests. As a consequence, botany emerged as a branch of science in the fourth century through the efforts of Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher. He wrote many books on plants and the ones surviving are his writings on the classification of plants, his study on the morphology, as well as the science, which deals with plant reproduction mechanism. His works have influenced many centuries afterwards and his theories and findings were taught till the seventeenth century. Without a doubt, contemporary botany started to make progress just during the late sixteenth century.
