PREFACE 



THE study of plants has assumed so many points of view that every 

 laboratory has developed its own method of undergraduate instruc- 

 tion. No laboratory attempts to include all the phases of work that 

 may be regarded as belonging to botany; and therefore each one 

 selects the material and the point of view that seem to it to be the 

 most appropriate for its own purpose. During the last ten years 

 the Hull Botanical Laboratory at the University of Chicago has been 

 developing its undergraduate instruction in botany to meet its own 

 needs. Freed from the necessity of laying special stress upon the 

 economic aspects of the subject, and compelled to prepare students 

 for investigation, it seemed clear that its selection must be the funda- 

 mental facts and principles of the science. Its endeavor has been 

 to help the student to build up a coherent and substantial body of 

 knowledge, and to develop an attitude of mind that will enable him 

 to grapple with any botanical situation, whether it be teaching or 

 investigation. It has been thought useful to present this point of 

 view in the present volume. The material of course is common 

 to all laboratories, but its selection, its organization, and its presenta- 

 tion bear the marks of individual judgment. 



The three parts of the book represent the three general divisions 

 of the subject as organized at the Hull Botanical Laboratory. They 

 are felt to be the fundamental divisions which should underlie the 

 work of most subdivisions of botanical investigation. For example, 

 a study of the very important subject of plant pathology must pre- 

 suppose the fundamentals of morphology and physiology ; paleobotany 

 is, in part, the application of morphology and ecology to fossil plants ; 

 and scientific plant breeding rests upon the foundations laid by 

 morphology, physiology, and ecology. In our selection for under- 

 graduate instruction, therefore, we believe that there has been in- 



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