PREFACE. 



After the many elementary works on Botany which 

 have appeared in various languages, any new attempt of 

 the same kind may, at first sight, seem unnecessary. 

 But when we consider the rapid progress of the science 

 within a few years, in the acquisition and determination 

 of new plants, and especially the discoveries and im- 

 provements in vegetable physiology : when we reflect 

 on the views with which those fundamental works of 

 Linnaeus, the basis of all following ones, were composed, 

 and to whom they were addressed, we must be aware 

 of their unfitness for purposes of general and popular 

 utility, and that something else is wanting. If we ex- 

 amine the mass of introductory books on botany in this 

 light, we shall find them in some cases too elaborate and^ 

 intricate, in others too obscure and imperfect : they are 

 also deficient in that very pleasing and instructive part 

 of botany the anatomy and physiology of plants. There 

 are indeed works, such as Rose's Elements of Botany, 

 and Darwin's Phytologia, with which no such faults 

 can be found. The former is a compendium of Lin- 

 naean learning, the latter a store of ingenious philosophy ; 



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