11 
works to which references are given. But as this book may pro¬ 
bably fall into the hands of many who, while they have no previous 
acquaintance with botanical science and little leisure or inclination 
for its study, are yet desirous of learning the names of the flowers 
they meet with in their walks, it may be advisable to add a few 
lines explanatory of the general structure of flowering plants, which, 
with the Glossary of terms, will probably enable any educated 
person, however unscientific, to understand the descriptions given 
in the body of the work. 
The vegetable kingdom is naturally divided into two great sec¬ 
tions, the plants of which, while exhibiting for the most part con 
siderable differences in internal structure, are more remarkably 
distinguished by the mode in which they propagate their kind. 
Those of one division possess no distinct flowers or seeds in which 
the germ of the future plant is enveloped, but multiply by means 
of minute cellular bodies called spores. Those of the other have 
distinct floral organs and produce seeds properly so called. The 
former section, called by botanists Cryptogamia, includes Ferns, 
Mosses, Lichens, Seaweeds and Fungi, with some other vegetables 
not comprised under these designations; the latter, the Phanero- 
gamia or Flowering Plants, to the British species of which our 
present book alone refers. 
A plant, in this, its more highly developed form, usually consists 
of four distinct parts, which, while they are all modifications of the 
same organic type, consisting of cells and vessels variously arranged, 
have yet very different offices assigned them in the ceconomy of 
Nature. They are the root, stem, leaves, and flower. 
The root is the organ by which the plant absorbs nutriment 
from the soil; it generally consists of a number of branches, 
whence various small fibres spring and penetrate into the sur¬ 
rounding earth in search of the nourishment, principally absorbed 
by their tender extremities. Where this form prevails, the root is 
