PREFACE 



This book has grown out of a course of instruction ex- 

 tending over a number of successive years. Most of the 

 material presented here, except Part I, has been used in 

 mimeographed form in college freshmen classes, not only as 

 a text from which to make assignments, but also as a guide 

 and reference in the laboratory. The issuance of the book 

 has been stimulated in part by the expressed need of a number 

 of schools for a text and reference book which will give the 

 student a knowledge of the botany of common orchard, 

 garden and field crops, and it is the author's wish that the 

 material brought together from many sources and organized 

 in the present form will meet this need, at least in a measure. 



It has seemed advisable to include chapters (Part I) which 

 may be needed in some instances to refresh the student's 

 knowledge of certain fundamentals, or prepare him for that 

 which follows in Part II. But in many schools Part II will 

 be preceded by a general course which aims to give the stu- 

 dent a survey of the plant kingdom and an acquaintance with 

 the large outstanding facts and principles of botany, and in 

 this case Part I will be omitted. The subject matter of 

 Part II is sufiicient for a course of one-half year involving 

 one recitation and two laboratory (5) periods per week. 



In the preparation of the book, the writer has had in 

 mind non-agricultural as well as agricultural schools, for it 

 cannot escape notice that there is a growing tendency, 

 wherever botany is taught, to tie it up more closely with 

 economic interests and to draw more and more upon economic 

 plants in citing examples and in choosing objects of study in 

 the laboratory. 



