INTRODUCTORY. XI 
unknown plants met with on their daily rounds to 
and from school. Under present school requirements 
the teacher is expected to take-the older pupils for 
excursions, at least in the neighbourhood of the 
school, to familiarise them with the local flora. When 
their interest is stimulated and a love of flowers 
instilled, they bring specimens to him to identify. 
With this handbook and some standard “ Flora of 
Great Britain,” he should have no diticulty in giving 
the required information. 
The “Memorandum of Nature Study” issued by 
the Education Department states :—‘ Where practi- 
cable, rambles for the study of things in their 
ordinary surroundings will naturally be frequent, 
so that each pupil, even in a large school, may be 
able to participate in as many as possible during 
the session.” “ The continuous study of a living 
plant in its natural environment, accompanied by 
careful, dated records, of its growth, development, 
and change throughout the successive seasons of the 
year, forms an exceptionally interesting and valuable 
exercise.” 
Few will deny the great educative value of a 
study of botany; but in rural districts its economic 
value is perhaps even more apparent. Much of the 
information published at the present day for the use 
of the agriculturist on the crops which he grows 
every year and the injurious weeds which he tries 
to extirpate from his fields, is simply unintelligible 
to the average farmer, owing to his lack of even a 
rudimentary knowledge of botany. As an illustration 
of what I mean, I once attended a lecture on grasses 
