xii THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 



truths which must unquestionably meet the censure 

 of the book-taught botanists of the old schools, but 

 which will quite as unquestionably meet the entire 

 approval of those naturalist-botanists of the more 

 modern type, who accept no result without its cause 

 and who study life for the love of it, with no pre- 

 scribed limitations of fact or possibility. To many 

 of these, the truths, here set forth for the first 

 time, come as a verification of their own theories. 



In the preparation of this work I have repeatedly 

 been questioned by interested friends, educated 

 men and women, who wondered at many of the 

 simplest statements of the characteristics and ac- 

 tions of the different plants. "Is this true?" has 

 been the surprised inquiry. "Do plants really set 

 traps and catch fish?" "Do they actually keep 

 servants and employ standing armies?" "Isn't that 

 merely a figure?" 



It is amazing the average child reaches man- 

 hood or womanhood with a surprising lack of 

 knowledge concerning the simplest natural objects 

 about it. Educated in the great colleges of the 

 country, having laboured through "courses" in bot- 

 any, the student too often comes forth with a vague 

 impression that "chlorophyll is green stuff," 

 "plants are fertilised by bees," and with decided 

 likes and dislikes for plants in the edible form of 



