VI PREFACE. 



will assuredly enable them to use profitably the more tech- 

 nical volumes to which allusion has been made. That of Mr. 

 Benth am has been herein most generally followed. Though 

 it has been sought to use as few technical terms as possible, 

 they have not been entirely avoided : that indeed being all but 

 impracticable, without largely increasing its bulk, in a book 

 devoted to matters of science, even when presented in a popu- 

 larized form. Where, however, such terms have been used, 

 the attempt has been made to soften them down and make 

 them self-explanatory as much as possible. Beyond this, a 

 Glossary has been provided to elucidate the rest. 



We may here briefly point out how the book is intended to 

 be used. First it will be evident, on scanning a few of its pages, 

 pp. 22 to 42 for example, that the bouquet form of gathering 

 wild flowers, in which, judging from one's correspondence, 

 lady-botanists are most apt to indulge, is not the proper bo- 

 tanical form ; that is to say, little sprigs of flowers, consisting 

 mainly of flowers, and without leaves and fruits, are not the 

 materials from which a proper knowledge of the plants or 

 of their classification is to be learned. It will be seen on 

 glancing over these pages, that not only are flowers with their 

 stamens and their pistils required for examination, but there 

 are carpels with their seeds to be sometimes looked into, and 

 there are leaves with their ribs and veins to be closely scruti- 

 nized — these latter, indeed, being almost the first which the 

 uninitiated botanist must inquire about. It is clear, therefore, 



