PRE FAC E 



That there is need of a new Class-Book of Botany, prepared on the basis of 

 the present advanced state of the science, and, at the same time, adapted to the 

 circumstances of the mass of students collected in our institutions and seminaries 

 of learning, is manifest to all who now attempt either to teach or to learn. The 

 time has arrived when Botany should no longer be presented to the learner 

 encumbered with the puerile misconceptions and barren facts of the old school, 

 but as a System of Nature, raised by recent researches to the dignity and rank 

 of a science founded upon the principles of inductive philosophy. The study 

 of this science through the medium of the system of Jussieu, is adapted, not 

 merely to the amusement of the mind, but eminently to its discipline ; and needs 

 no longer to be excluded from popular pursuit by cumbrous and costly tomes. 

 That theory of the floral structure which refers each organ to the principle of the 

 leaf, long since propounded in Germany by the poet Goethe, and recently 

 admitted, by authors generally, to be coincident with facts, is adopted, of course, 

 -N^ in the present work. Entering into almost every department of the science, it 

 ^Z" has given a new aspect to the whole face of it ; and it reveals, more clearly than 

 any other discovery has ever done, the beauty and simplicity of that plan on 

 which Creative Power is exerted in the production of the countless fonns of 

 vegetable existence. 



How far the present work may be adapted to the diffusion of this important 



science, in its present advanced state, a candid public must determine. I have 



„ undertaken and accomplished it, thus far, from a thorough conviction of my own 



^ need of such aid as is here contemplated, both in acquiring and imparting 



'"''■"'' knowledge in this department of natural history. 



The First Tart contains a summary of the Elements of Botany, according to 

 the latest authorities, written in the fonn of simple propositions, briefly illus- 

 trated, and broken into short paragraphs with direct reference to the convenience 

 of the learner. Brief as it is, it is hoped that it will be found to embody all the 

 established principles of the science contained in fonner school treatises, together 

 with tliosc newly discovered principles in Organography and Physiology, by 

 which the science has been really enriched and advanced. 



The Flora comprehends all the Phocnogamous plants, with the ferns, &-c., 



