INTRODUCTION yy 
from dead parts of plants that have been preserved in any 
suitable way, as by drying or by placing in alcohol or other 
fluids which prevent decay. Living plants must be studied 
in order to ascertain what kinds of food they take, what 
kinds of waste substances they excrete, how and where 
their growth takes place and what circumstances favor it, 
how they move, and indeed to get as complete an idea as 
possible of what has been called the behavior of plants. 
Since the most familiar and most interesting plants 
spring from seeds, the beginner in botany can hardly do 
better than to examine at the outset the structure of a few 
familiar seeds, then sprout them and watch the growth of 
the seedlings which spring from them. Afterwards he 
may study in a few typical examples the organs, structure, 
and functions of seed-plants, trace their life history, and 
so, step by step, follow the process by which a new crop 
of seeds at last results from the growth and development 
of such a seed as that with which he began. 
After he has come to know in a general way about the 
structure and functions of seed-plants, the student may 
become acquainted with some typical cryptogams or spore- 
plants. There are so many groups of these that only a 
few representative ones can be chosen for study. 
