PREFACE 



THE object of the present volume is to fill a gap which 

 has appeared to the authors to exist in the literature of 

 elementary botany, and however imperfectly this object 

 has been attained, it is their hope that a sufficiently clear 

 indication has been given to teachers and students alike 

 of the lines upon which the interaction between the vital 

 element on the one hand and the forces of Nature on the 

 other may be read into the hard facts of morphology, 

 by means of which the " dry bones " of descriptive 

 botany may be " clothed with living flesh." 



The association of form with function, of fact with 

 environment, and of effect with cause, provides undeniably 

 the most efficient method of securing a real knowledge 

 of any branch of Natural History, the study of which 

 by this means becomes one of the highest educational 

 value. 



Botany is the most accessible of Natural Sciences. 

 Flowers are everywhere. They appeal to the wonder of 

 the child, and for the old their study and cultivation form 

 an unrivalled hobby. 



To many, however, botany appears a science of hard 

 names and still harder facts at least, at the outset. 

 The knowledge derived from the text-book is too often 

 overburdened with detail, and is therefore soon forgotten. 

 Too much of it is concerned with the bodies, and too little 

 with the lives, of the humble flowers so minutely described. 



This should not be. There is romance and tragedy 

 in the struggle of vegetable forms and races as among 

 animal. Plants as well as animals constitute an aggre- 

 gate of living things, the component races of which 

 compete for mastery one against the other ; plants no 

 less than animals have a history past and present a 



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