INTRODUCTION 



WITH the introduction of microscopes into the secondary 

 schools, the early superficial study of plant "analysis," which 

 aimed at finding the names of plants, gave place to a study of 

 minute anatomy and the lower forms of plant life. The micro- 

 scopical method is of undoubted educational value, but the 

 student, who confines his attention too exclusively to minute 

 structures and forms of plant-life, is in danger of losing that 

 living interest which a wider outlook into the science alone 

 can afford. 



There is yet a third method which considers plants as 

 living things, and the study of their life relations becomes 

 the new standpoint from which they are approached. The 

 influence of light, air, and moisture on the form and position 

 of stems and leaves, and how the conditions of soil affect the 

 development and distribution of plants, are questions not only 

 of interest in themselves, but likely to stimulate the reason- 

 ing powers of even young children ; and children are most 

 interested when they can be led to think for themselves. 



This book has been written with a view to suggesting how 

 some of these conditions are met by plants in South Africa. 

 Some of the chapters as, e.g., IV, VII, and XVIII, are 

 intended as reading lessons. The object of others is to 

 furnish outlines for the study of plant forms, while there is 

 little except, possibly, the names of the parts of the flower 

 in Chapter XIV, which should be committed to memory. 



