vi PREFACE 
to hope, an advance upon previous works of this kind. 
I have endeavoured to give briefly a connected account 
of the essential phases of life-history in each case. 
The life of the plant is in this way revealed at the 
stage when such interesting features most attract— 
the beginner’s stage. The “drier details” which 
usually find a place in works intended to give a 
general survey of the orders of plants in their 
natural arrangement are further described from the 
same standpoint, from a desire to bring the student 
into the field to study, not only the plant’s characters, 
by which it is recognised and identified, but also its 
ways and means of earning its livelihood, of carrying 
on its race, and so on. 
The introductory chapter also sums up generally 
the principles underlying the main facts of the life- 
history thus set forth. 
The writer's experience in a public institution has 
shown that those who are interested to-day in plants 
(or animals) do not merely wish to know the name 
of a plant, or how to identify it—though, if this can 
be done on broad principles, they are eager to learn 
—but they want to know the details of how and 
where and when it grows. Hence the method adopted 
in this book. 
For revising the proof-sheets and many helpful 
suggestions I am much indebted to Miss C. E. C. 
