Preface 



skill; Ciircfiilness and strenuous labour of the sub- 

 editors, occasional papers do escape them. 



The notices are almost invariably very short ; often 

 only the mere title of an article is f^iven or a very brief 

 abstract. 



Yet in spite of all this condensation and succinct- 

 ness of treatment, tlie book consists, for the year 1905, 

 of three stout volumes with in all 2703 pages and 

 weighing i 2.1 lbs. (including a necessarily stout binding). 

 The number of books, articles and papers which have 

 been classified and noted for this year is very great, 

 being no less than 12,872. 



'I'he actual printing recpiired for all these botanical 

 works is dinicult to estim.ite. Some may be books of 

 500 pages and others brief articles of five pages only, 

 but on the very moderate estimate of twenty pages per 

 notice, we obtain, for 1905 alone, the magnihccnt total 

 of ^57,440, or say over a quarter of a million, printed 

 pages, often of a difficult and technical character and 

 written in perhaps eight or nine different languages. 

 That gives one some idea of the enormity of the real 

 botany of to-day and of the unmitigated industry of 

 botanists all over the world. 



I have been obliged to leave out much recent work 

 on cell theory, on the fertilisation and development of 

 the Cryptogams and on fossil plants. It is unfortunate 

 that so much of English botanical work belongs to 

 one or other of these abstruse branches, which really 

 require for their enjoyment a long and arduous 

 apprenticeship. 



An attempt has be(Mi made to divest the botany of 

 to-day of all those cumbersome technical terms in 

 which too many specialists are inclined to bury their 

 researches. 



If a fact or theory in science is of any impoitance, 



vi 



