IV PREFA CE. 



Plant Life is an attempt to exhibit the variety and pro- 

 gressive complexity of the vegetative body ; to discuss the 

 more important functions; to explain the unity of plan in 

 both the structure and action of the reproductive organs j 

 and finally to give an outline of the more striking ways in 

 which plants adapt themselves to the world about them. I 

 have made an effort to treat these subjects so that, however 

 much the student may have still to learn, he will have little 

 to unlearn ; for eradication of false notions is the despair of 

 the college teacher of science. 



This is not a book to be memorized and recited. If so used it 

 is abused. It aims to be intelligible to pupils 13 to 18 years 

 of age who are engaged in genuine laboratory study — not at 

 irregular hours, without supervision, in a school desk, or at 

 home, but in a suitable laboratory, with regular time (an 

 hour and a half daily if possible), under the direction of a 

 live teacher who has studied far more botany than he is 

 trying to teach. I am aware that such conditions are yet 

 unrealized in many schools ; but they may be gradually 

 reached. That Plant Life may prove useful in botanical 

 instruction even under the most unfavorable conditions, I 

 permit myself to hope rather than to expect. 



This book may be used to supplement any laboratory guide 

 or the directions prepared by the teacher. For the sake of 

 teachers who may not wish to use two books, or who lack time 

 and facilities for preparing laboratory directions, I have out- 

 lined a course of study in Appendix I which can be carried 

 out with the equipment listed in Appendix III. A description 

 of the material needed and of suitable methods of preserving 

 it forms Appendix II. Each teacher will, of course, need to 

 modify the directions to suit the material available. I have 

 always found it easier to prepare directions to fit the material 

 than to create the material to fit the directions. The "dem- 

 onstrations " of Appendix I are intended as suggestions to the 



