XVI 



INTRODUCTION 



parts are dissected, to keep them flat when laid out on a sheet of paper, glass 

 squares may be used as weights. To fasten the parts down when arranged as in 

 a diagram, one may use gum, water, or other adhesive, or pins. 



Small structures may be studied by means of a hand-lens, and a microscope is 

 necessary to examine pollen and small sections, the presence of very small hairs, 

 glands, stomata, crystals, &c. 



For lifting very small objects a pin dipped in water or a pair of forceps may be 

 used. 



Sketching materials may be employed to draw the flower before dissection, from 

 one or more aspects, as well as after. Painting of the flower to show colour is to 

 be encouraged. Sections, vertical and otherwise, of the flower should be drawn. 

 For these purposes one needs a good Whatman drawing-block, or sketch-book, 

 pencils (H., H.B., &c.), and a box of good water-colour paints. 



In endeavouring to progress at this stage in the identification of species, two 

 plans may be adopted, one preliminary to the other. One may first proceed from 

 the known to the unknown. Taking a number of field specimens, gathered fresh 

 or herbarium material, of plants known by their English names, study them, write 

 their description, after dissection, &c. Take a flora, in the index look up the 

 English name, and turn to the page where the plant is described. There one will 

 learn its Latin names, discover the natural order and other groupings. Some know- 

 ledge is thus gained of the species, genus, natural order, sub-class, class, and one's 

 own description may be compared with that of the flora. If desired, other works 

 can be consulted in the same way, and as much learnt about the plant as possible. 

 It should not after some practice thereafter be difficult to recognize other (unknown) 

 plants of the same genus, order, &c., and to refer them to their proper groups. 



And indeed this naturally leads up to the next plan, and that is to collect or 

 examine any fresh or dried specimen unknown to one, and by aid of the knowledge 

 already gained to refer it to its genus, order, &c., and then to the species. If the 

 first plan is carried out on systematic lines, by taking a common plant of each 

 natural order (there are 90 odd British orders, and at least 300 or 400 well-known 

 common plants, so there is plenty of scope for choice), then the reference to the 

 natural order should not be difficult, assuming some knowledge already of orders, 

 genera, &c., as advised previously. The whole plan of this work, apart from its 

 ecological basis, is to help the beginner with this end in view. The large number of 

 beginners who, foiled in their early attempts, give up systematic botany in despair 

 may indeed provide ample reason for the production of this work, apart from its 

 other, and, I trust, not less laudable objects, which have been followed out in re- 

 sponse to a widespread demand. 



Having followed the two plans suggested for making progress in identification, 

 the botanist, as he or she may now be termed, having gone through a preliminary 

 botanical course, may take more definite steps to name species. A method largely 

 in vogue is to run down the species by a process of elimination, by aid of the various 

 analytical keys to orders, genera, and finally species, to be found in many floras 

 which describe the whole, or most, of the British Flora. Bentham and Hooker's 

 work for this purpose is invaluable, and another and more modern work is Babing- 

 ton's Manual, where, however, the analytic key stops at genera, as do many others. 

 For readily identifying species, Druce's edition of Hayward's Botanist's Pocket-book 

 is invaluable. The specific characters are brief and therefore easy to compare. The 

 method of using a key is well explained in Bentham and Hooker's Handbook of the 

 British Flora, and the student may be referred to it. Other larger works, to be 

 used later, which have also analytical keys to genera, and sometimes to species, are 



