PREFACE 



IN writing this little introduction to the study of a plant 

 I have endeavoured especially to present it to the reader 

 as a living organism. Botany is now regarded as a 

 branch of biology, and is not satisfactorily studied by 

 gathering plants and, after ascertaining their names and 

 the natural orders to which they belong, drying them 

 and putting them away in a cabinet. I have tried to 

 present them as they are engaged in the struggle for 

 existence, and to call my readers' attention not only to 

 their form and structure but especially to what they do 

 in life, and why and how they do it. 



I hope that those who study them by the assistance 

 of this little primer will try to have the living plant 

 under observation whiler they read it. I have not 

 written any detailed scheme of laboratory work, but I 

 hope my readers will be able to construct such a scheme 

 for themselves as they follow the directions for study 

 given in the text. 



I should like to suggest that students should read the 

 Chemistry primer first, to gain some acquaintance with 

 the phenomena underlying the processes of construction 

 and decomposition going on in the plant. It would be 

 well to read the Biology primer also before beginning 

 Botany. 



J. REYNOLDS GREEN. 



CAMBRIDGE, 1909. 



921904 



