AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



TO THE ENGLISH EDITION OF "PFLANZENLEBEN". 



Not long ago two artisans, who had borrowed a copy of Pflan- 

 zenlehen from one of the Vienna public libraries and had studied its 

 pages, called upon me, asking me to show them under the microscope 

 some of the things there described. 



It seemed that without any special educational advantages they had 

 availed themselves of leisure moments to extend their knowledge, and 

 had read Pflanzenlehen with profit. On leaving, they thanked me in 

 simple words for the pleasure, instruction, and stimulus which they had 

 derived from the perusal of my book. 



I confess that these words gave me vastly more pleasure than many 

 of the verbose and flattering reviews of Pflanzenleben that had appeared 

 in newspapers and scientific journals, many of which conveyed the 

 impression of being the result of hasty skimming of copies sent by the 

 publisher. 



The satisfaction which the little incident gave me was the greater, 

 in that it was an assurance that I had achieved in Pflanzenlehen what 

 had been my intention namely, to write a book which might serve as 

 a source of knowledge, not only for specialists and scholars, but also for 

 the many who, though compelled to follow some practical calling, still 

 take an interest in science, and who wish, each in his own particular 

 degree, to oljtain information of its progress. 



Popular treatises on the results of scientific investigation are by no 

 means rare with us Germans; but in too many cases scientific problems 

 involving serious thought are touched superficially, and, like the stone 

 in a sweet fruit, are embedded in picturesque and attractive accounts of 

 things purely of subordinate importance. The reader, gratified by the 

 elegant phraseology, passes by tlie kernel of fact, and derives little profit 

 from the book. Books such as these have brought the art of popular 

 writing into discredit, and we have arrived at the point when educated 



