PREFACE 



THE object of this little work is to provide the student 

 who has mastered the elements of botanical science 

 with a Flora of such small size as to be easily carried on 

 country rambles, which shall enable him readily to identify the 

 common plants with which he will meet. 



It has been sought to render the task of determining an 

 unknown plant as easy as possible by making each step of the 

 process to consist in deciding which of hvo opposite characters 

 the plant under examination possesses. An example will best 

 explain the way in which the book is to be used. The first 

 table (on p. 9) is used to determine the Sub-Class to which the 

 plant belongs. When this has been made out the tables under 

 each division are used to determine the Natural Order, and 

 then in like manner the Genus and Species are to be found. 

 We will suppose that the plant which the student has for deter- 

 mination is the common Germander Speedwell^^a well-known 

 little plant with bright blue flowers. The plant being a flowering 

 plant, we have to determine whether it is a dicotyledon or mono- 

 cotyledon? Its net-veined leaves and 4-partite corolla leave no 

 doubt that it is a dicotyledon. We pass on then to 4, and ask 

 — Is the corolla present as well as the calyx ? and the answer 

 being in the affirmative, the next point to decide is 6, whether 

 the stamens grow on the corolla ? Evidently they do, and the 

 plant therefore belongs to CoroUiflorae. Turning now to the 



^ See Fig. between pp. 102 and 103. 



