PREFACE 



be dictated or written by the teacher. The Reader is de- 

 signed to save this labor, that is, to supplement observation 

 work, but by no means to supplant it. 



The Supplement to the Reader has been written with 

 the needs of teachers in mind. It contains many additional 

 details; the plants are described more fully and their botan- 

 ical names are given. Such facts of structural and physio- 

 logical botany as the writer has found specially useful 

 during considerable experience in teaching, have been in- 

 serted. In an appendix, suggestions for the use of the 

 Reader in the school-room are offered, and a course of 

 plant study for California school children is outlined. A 

 short list of available botanical works is also given. 



In the preparation of the book, the usual botanical 

 authorities have been consulted. Kerner's " Natural His- 

 tory of Plants ' ' has suggested and inspired investigation 

 along various lines. Direct assistance in every way has been 

 given by the writer's husband, Dr. Anstruther Davidson. 

 Many thanks are due to Miss Harriet E. Dunn for aid 

 in revising the manuscript and to Mrs. J. Crossley Neilson 

 and Prof. Everett Shepardson for assistance in proof read- 

 ing. The drawings, nearly all of them from nature, have 

 been contributed by former pupils in the Normal School at 

 lyOS Angeles, most of them being the work of Miss Cooper 

 and Miss Lewis. Miss Ada M. Laughlin, teacher of 

 drawing in the same school, has been most helpful. 



FOOT NOTE. It has not generally been practicable to 

 reproduce the drawings natural size, or to an exact scale. 

 Most of the flowering plants are reduced about one-fourth. 

 The number of times magnified is indicated by the sign, x. 



