

PREFACE. 



THE object of this Primer is to supply an elementary 

 knowledge of the principal facts of plant-life, together 

 with the means of training beginners in the way to 

 observe plants methodically and accurately; and in 

 the way to apply the knowledge thus obtained to 

 the methodical study of Botany. 



It is hoped that by its means the teacher may 

 convey a sound elementary knowledge of the number, 

 nature, relative positions and uses of the principal 

 organs of plants, of the order and way in which they 

 grow, and in which plants multiply, and of those 

 resemblances which exist amongst them, by a com- 

 parison of which their true relationships are known 

 and themselves classified. 



In using this Primer the plants indicated are, when- 

 ever possible, to be put into each pupil's hand. 

 Hence, to facilitate its use, I have placed at the end 

 an Index of the plants referred to in it. These may 

 be procured in the country, or from any intelligent 

 nurseryman. Many of them should be grown in every 

 school-garden, and arranged in it systematically, so 

 that the teacher may have the same means of dis- 

 playing to his pupils the principles of classification 

 that the great founder of the natural classification of 

 plants, Bernard de Jussieu, had after he had thus 



