viii INTRODUCTION. 



them, the object of the book will be equally well obtained. 

 There is no doubt that botanical studies can be made 

 to look uncommonly dry to the uninitiated, and that 

 some of the terms are of portentous length, but all the 

 terms that it is essential for the amateur to know can 

 be readily mastered. Some little knowledge of botanical 

 terms is necessary, but we may fairly assume that all 

 plant lovers are willing to acquire this knowledge. 

 Failing this simple botanical outfit, the tyro is quickly 

 at sea, reading description after description comfortless. 

 Every pursuit has its technicalities, every trade its 

 working tools. 



We remember to have seen an excellent little book 

 in which all the facts of plant structure were explained 

 in ordinary language, but this necessitated a great deal 

 of roundabout diction that might have been prevented 

 had a few technical terms been mastered, and as these 

 terms are found in every other book that the student 

 desires to consult it is the better policy to master them 

 once for all. It would, for instance, be a most hopeless 

 state of things to be entirely willing to take a course 

 of lessons in carpentry on the distinct understanding 

 that such words as gimlet and chisel were not on any 

 excuse of convenience to be employed. 



The love of Nature is its own exceeding great reward. 

 The old tale of " Eyes and No-Eyes " is still we suppose 

 current, but we may now happily look forward to a 

 time when the latter individual will be no more, and 



