lh eal 
PREFACE 
The main purpose of the book is to show some of the edu- 
cational possibilities offered by plants of every day use, and - 
at the same time to guide beginners to such general ideas 
about plants as should form part of a liberal education. 
There are a number of plants that every one ought to 
know because of their intimate connection with human 
welfare. These plants represent all parts of the vegetable 
kingdom, they are the very ones about which most persons 
have the greatest desire to learn, and they are mainly the 
ones which were first studied by mankind. Help the be- 
ginner, therefore, to learn at the outset as much about these 
economic plants as he is ready for; then help him to classify 
them scientifically, and he will be prepared to appreciate 
that wider view of the life of plants which inspires botany 
today. On this plan I have tried to write such a book as-I 
believe would have been most useful to me when I was a 
beginner. 
Botany taught by the historical method, as this procedure 
may be called, not only appeals from the start to the strongest 
practical incentives, but profits by the student’s knowledge 
in many other departments, which knowledge it often en- 
riches. Thus pursued botany also offers an exceptionally 
fine opportunity for cultivating scientific habits of mind and 
methods of work. These are sure to economize energy in 
every intellectual undertaking. The scientific attitude and 
scientific ways of proceeding control modern progress, and 
in no better way can one catch the spirit of these than by 
the scientific study of plants. 
So closely similar are the needs of all who wish to make a 
good beginning that it becomes possible for a book like the 
present to serve many diverse classes of students. The 
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