PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



r I THE following pages have been penned in the 

 -- hope that, not only may they be the means 

 of introducing the study of the little plants with 

 the life-history of which they deal, to some who 

 have not hitherto realised its possibilities, but may 

 also be of service to others who, while not desirous 

 of going at all deeply into the matter, may never- 

 theless wish to know something about the struc- 

 ture and growth of these humble members of the 

 botanical community. 



I have often observed, when lecturing to a 

 general audience, how greatly the avoidance of 

 scientific phraseology has been appreciated, and I 

 feel sure that the use of even ordinary botanical 

 terms, on such and similar occasions, is responsible 

 for the fact that, to the lay mind, any subject 

 connected with the world of plant life is too 

 frequently considered as necessarily dry and unin- 

 teresting. With this in mind I have been speci- 

 ally anxious to use simple language, and have, 

 therefore, in nearly every case employed English 

 equivalents for the ordinary expressions, at the 

 same time adding the latter in brackets. For the 

 like reason I have given English names to the few 



