PREFACE. Vii 
plants, as, by presenting some of the leading 
principles of Botany in a familiar manner, to 
beget in the reader an interest in a study which 
will at once prove a profitable pleasure and a 
wholesome recreation. The flora of our own 
land possesses attractions to all classes, inas- 
much as it lies within the reach of all. The 
schoolboy may gather, as he goes, gems from 
the grassy roadside, which, if they be but the 
simplest of flowers, will bear the impress of a 
Divine finger, and convey a lesson of deep in- 
struction. Let us not then undervalue the 
least of His works, who created nothing in 
vain, but who, 
With consummate skill devised the plan 
That creation’s every voice should whisper 
Words of peace, and joy, and hope to man 
