INTRODUCTION 



BRITISH BOTANY. \1*L> 



CHAPTEE I. 



EXPLANATION OF TERMS. 



THOUGH the highest claim of this volume is to intro- 

 duce the lover of Nature to an acquaintance with the 

 common British plants, the Author has given to his 

 first Chapter the somewhat presuming title of an "Intro- 

 duction to British Botany ;" lest those into whose hands 

 the work may fall should pass over the earlier part of it 

 as a treatise or summary of contents so little connected 

 with what follows, that the perusal of it may he omitted 

 or deferred with safety. So far is this from being the 

 case, that the reader who is unacquainted with the ele- 

 ments of botany will find the body of the work of little 

 use, unless he carefully peruses the earlier pages, and 

 makes himself thoroughly acquainted with the general 

 plan. 



The limits of a work of this kind will not allow any 

 account of the internal structure of plants, or of the 

 functions of their various organs. Nor, indeed, is such 

 description necessary in a work which professes merely 

 to teach the unscientific how to find out the names of 

 the flowers they may happen to fall in with in the 

 course of their country rambles. Such a knowledge of 

 plants as this, it may be said, and said with truth, is 

 not Botany ; nevertheless, it is a step towards Botany : 

 for there can be no doubt that scientific treatises on this 

 subject would often be studied with pleasure, if the 



