Preface to the Fourth Edition 
The value of a thorough systematic training in Botany with 
emphasis upon the structural and taxonomic aspects of this 
science is now generally recognized as a prerequisite to the 
proper comprehension of problems in pharmacognosy and 
materia medica. But apart from the direct relation of such 
training to these and other applied fields, Botany per se stands 
out preeminently as a cultural subject and, when presented 
with laboratory work, is of great value in developing, in students, 
the power of observation. 
In preparing the new edition of this text-book, the author has 
primarily kept in mind the needs of the pharmaceutical student 
but he has not been unmindful of its use by students of academic 
colleges and accordingly has increased the scope of the work. 
Fifty-three new pages of subject matter and 25 illustrations 
have been added. Chapter I on “Fundamental Considera- 
tions” has been augmented by the inclusion of a list of standard 
micro-chemical reagents used in food and drug work together 
with formule for their preparation. Chapter VII on “Plant 
Organs and Organisms” has been lengthened by 23 pages of 
new subject matter. Among the outstanding features of its 
revision may be mentioned the introduction of considerable 
more plant physiology as well as new drawings and photographs, 
most of which are original. 
There has been an amplification of the subject matter of 
roots, rhizomes, leaves, seeds and seedlings including data on 
soil and water relation, diffusion, osmosis, osmosis applied to 
root hairs, turgor, plasmolysis, essential and non-essential 
elements absorbed by root hairs, transpiration and the histology 
of a type of Monocotyl rhizome. New plates illustrating the 
gross structure of Monocotyl and Dicotyl seeds and of seedlings 
are introduced for the first time. Chapter IX on Ecology has 
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