NOV 8 ~ 1933 
NEW YORK 
BOTANICAL 
GARDEN 
INTRODUCTION 
pO the study of Nature it is essential to go to 
Nature herself, and no one, least of all the 
writer of this little book, who is essentially a close 
observer of Nature, would wish to advocate the 
teaching of natural science by books alone. On the 
other hand, the stimulus of a well-presented account, 
gathering up the knowledge gained from careful 
observation and experiment is undoubted, and in this 
respect most of the present work has been tested by 
the author and an appreciative audience of eager and 
inquiring young minds. The first part interprets to 
the young student of Botany the meaning of the 
many phenomena of plant life which he or she may 
have been studying, and represents an attempt at 
outlining a mental picture of the closely interde- 
pendent functions and of the adaptations observed 
among plants, by explaining the factors of vegetable 
life, whenever it is possible to do so, in terms 
familiarly used of human life. Those who have not 
had opportunities of detailed study of plant life will 
no doubt find in these pages an incentive to make a 
personal investigation of the fascinating processes 
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