LIBRARY 
NEW YORK 
BOTANICAL, 
GARDEN 
‘PREFACE. 
oe 
‘Tue present text-book is, for the most part, an expansion 
of the manuscript notes which have for some years formed 
_ the basis of the botany-teaching in the Boston English High 
School. These notes were drawn up by Mr. Samuel F. Tower 
and the author, for the purpose of establishing what seemed 
to them a suitable half-year course in botany for pupils of the 
entering class.in that school. 
‘It will be found that this book differs from most American 
text-books designed for use in secondary schools, in endeavor- 
ing to combine in one volume the simplest possible directions 
for laboratory work with an outline of vegetable anatomy and 
physiology, and a brief statement of the principles of botani- 
eal classification. An account of the functions of the tissues 
or organs described usually follows as closely as may be the 
account of the parts in question. The attempt is made to 
discuss* plants dynamically rather than statically, to view 
them as contestants in the struggle for existence, and to con- 
sider some of the conditions of success and failure in the 
vegetable world. While the determination of species by 
means of an artifical key is illustrated, preparation for this 
hee is by no means the main object or even a principal 
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4 
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2 
end which the author has had in view. The tendency of 
botany-teaching seems to be more and more away from the 
old ideal of enabling one’s pupils to run down a species as 
expeditiously as possible, and teaching them how to preserve 
a properly ticketed memento of the chase. 
