PREFACE. 



THE different chapters of this work were first com- 

 posed and delivered in the form of a series of popular 

 lectures. Re-written, and considerably extended, they 

 are now published with the view of awakening the in- 

 terest of the reader in a department of nature with 

 which few, owing to the technical phraseology of botani- 

 cal works, are familiar. Those who have derived plea- 

 sure and profit from the study of flowers and ferns 

 subjects, it is pleasing to find, now everywhere popular 

 by descending lower into the arcana of the vegetable 

 kingdom, will find a still more interesting and delightful 

 field of research in the objects brought under review in 

 the following pages. This work is neither a text-book 

 nor a guide to species, but simply a popular history of 

 the uses, structural peculiarities, associations, and other 

 interesting facts connected with the humblest forms of 

 plant life ; and, as such, it may be regarded as an intro- 

 duction to more scientific treatises, which deal with 



particular orders and species. 



H. M. 



FREE MANSE OF KIRKMICHAEL. 



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