parcel of the same system, are recognizable by 
differences in degree but not in kind, and are 
all interesting manifestations of that mysterious 
thing we call life. No creature lives or dies 
to itself. The correlation of organisms in Na- 
ture is similiar to the correlation of organs in 
individual plants and animals. 
If the reader will but face this fact, he will 
approach the study of Nature with a new rev- 
erence. He will recognize the oneness and kin- 
ship of all life. 
It is largely the object of this book to ex- 
plore the inner recesses of breathing and think- 
ing plantdom—to take the reader beyond the 
limits of text-book botany into regions of sym- 
pathetic insight—to show how even human arts 
and sciences are unchangeably bound up with 
the lives and hopes of the grasses and flowers. 
To do this comprehensively, it has been 
thought wise not only to indicate how plants 
think and act but to incorporate a broad general 
history of their race stretching back to their first 
appearance on the planet and carried forward 
to the Burbank creations. With this knowledge 
in hand, we are better equipped to approach 
[13] 
