INTRODUCTION 5 



The facts that are mentioned under each section 

 designedly constitute but a brief summary of each 

 portion of the subject ; and as the sub-title of these 

 volumes on the ^* Types of Natural Orders " does not 

 allow of a fuller treatment, this is left for possible 

 further additions to this series with other sub-titles, 

 such as " Plants and their Work." For, though the 

 main object of the present volumes is to stimulate 

 the interest of the beginner by the readiest and most 

 easy means, by the study of plants, type by type, to 

 be found close at hand around one, it is hoped that 

 the purely systematic work thus begun, as a basis, will 

 lead on to that of the other branches of botany to 

 which reference has above been made. For this 

 reason it has been considered more expedient at this 

 stage in these introductory notes, at the risk of 

 giving many facts without over-much illustration or 

 experiment, to dispense with the latter. This 

 omission is made in the hope that work thus begun 

 in the open air, by a gradual acquaintance with 

 plants in their synthetic form as complete living 

 specimens, studied in the field, may lead on to the 

 closer study and analysis of their structure, and the 

 meaning of their functions. Hence physiological 

 and microscopic work has been reserved for, possibly, 

 further studies in this series. The general title, 

 * The Story of Plant Life in the British Isles,' 

 furthermore, naturally covers all the phenomena of 

 plant-life to be encountered in these islands, and this 

 popular mode of treatment of British Botany and 



