PREFACE. 



THIS book is addressed to pupils in their first or second 

 year in the high school. It assumes that Botany may be the 

 first science they study, and that therefore it should provide 

 plenty of individual work within their powers, and should 

 give this work unity of effect and make it evidently worth 

 while. In keeping with the modern scientific spirit, nutrition, 

 reproduction, and relation to man are made the dominant 

 aspects of the subject. What plants are is made to appear in 

 terms of what they do. Structures and processes are then 

 interpreted both from the plant's point of view and from man's. 

 The problems set before the pupil call for definite and con- 

 tinued effort on his part, and for the independent interpreta- 

 tion of observations. The economic relations of plant life are 

 noted as the study proceeds, and the concluding chapters are 

 intended to leave the pupil with a general view of the larger 

 general applications of the science. 



Especial importance is given to the study of seeds and seed- 

 lings, the parts of the full-grown plant and the principal types 

 or forms of the root, stem and leaf, including the work per- 

 formed by these parts in providing food and water, building 

 material, and food storage. Since the flower is an important 

 structure designed for the purpose of facilitating seed produc- 

 tion, with principal and subordinate organs for this work, 

 especial interest is attached to a careful study of its parts and 

 their structure. As the different kinds of flowers and the 

 different modes of their association on the flower shoot are 

 the result of the operation of natural laws, floral structures 

 and groupings naturally indicate plant relationship. Several 

 of these different types are therefore studied, not for the 



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