PREFACE 
I HAVE not attempted in this little book to 
cover the whole ground indicated by its title. 
My object has rather been to try to place before 
the reader a few of the salient features of plant 
form from the point of view of function. In 
this way, as I think, it is less difficult to keep 
in mind the general nature of the causes which 
have been operative in bringing about the 
marvellous beauty and adaptedness of form 
which is so apparent in every branch of the 
vegetable kingdom. | 
The task of selection has not proved an 
easy one, and nobody can be more fully alive 
to the imperfections of treatment, and other 
sins of commission and omission, than I am 
myself. Some, at any rate, of the last-named 
defects are attributable to the limitations 
of space. 
I have deliberately touched, though with 
enforced brevity, on certain of the more 
difficult problems which are even now con- 
fronting us, and I have endeavoured to 
present them with as little technicality as 
possible, but whether I have been successful 
in this I must leave to the judgment of 
others. 
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