PREFACE. V 



hoped that the work will be found suitable not only for 

 classes pursuing a regular course of lectures, but also for 

 those who have never before studied botany, and for 

 home use away from the assistance of a teacher. 



The required apparatus, reagents and materials have been 

 reduced to a minimum, difficult manipulations (except the 

 cutting of sufficiently thin sections) have, to a large extent, 

 been excluded, and the minute anatomy has been kept 

 within the limits of the average microscope used in the 

 botanical laboratories of this country, in short, the attempt 

 has been to provide a guide to the study of a few common 

 plants in which simple appliances, coupled with persever- 

 ance and keen observation on the part of the learner, are 

 the only essentials. 



Under "gross anatomy " the plant is first examined with 

 the aid only of a hand lens, and then passing to " minute 

 anatomy," every part is subjected to the compound micro- 

 scope. A student's success in the latter may often be 

 gauged by his ability to discover all there is to be seen 

 under the former. 



The laboratory work for each plant is preceded by direc- 

 tions for the preliminary finding and preparation of mate- 

 rial. It is followed by annotations which serve a number 

 of purposes : (i) to explain obscure matters, (2) to give 

 additional information which for want of higher powers, 

 special reagents or proper materials, the student is unable 

 in the usual limited time to secure for himself, but which is 

 essential to fully round out the subject, more especially, 

 however, (3) to give some insight into the course of develop- 

 ment from the lower to the higher forms which will serve as 

 a thread on which the most important facts ascertained in 

 the laboratory work may be strung, and not the least (4) 

 to direct the student to sources of additional information by 

 means of which he may pursue his inquiries as far as he 



