vi PREFACE 



volume, both by the press and by individuals, makes 

 me venture to hope that the object of the series is 

 understood by that increasing body of the public 

 which sees in Nature a something to love; something 

 that not merely interests, but supplies an object for 

 study and even research. The number of those so 

 interested is not confined to one section of the 

 public, but includes all sections; and, in these days 

 of great educational facilities, a knowledge of such 

 subjects as botany and zoology is within the scope 

 of the poorest as of the richest. As a sign of the 

 times, one meets continually gardeners who wish to 

 study botanical principles. And, in course of travel, 

 one notices even the business magnate, with a hand- 

 book on trees, scanning the country en route as an 

 exercise in identification of the wild flowers passed 

 within his range of vision. In a word. Nature 

 Study, in all its phases, is a part of everyone's 

 education to-day. 



The endeavour to make these volumes, which 

 describe types of the natural orders, introductory 

 to other aspects of plant life, which I have had 

 especially in mind in writing them, has also been, it 

 would seem, successful. It may be possible to add 

 to this systematic series additional volumes, dealing 

 in greater detail with some of the features sum- 

 marised in the introduction to each volume. There 

 is a fund of interest in the plant life of the British 



