INTRODUCTION xiii 



already made; a few facts already learned. The plans and 

 studies may be changed to-morrow ; the records of observations 

 and studies will be increased; and many of the supposed facts 

 may prove to be errors and be supplanted by other statements. 



No, we must not study books ; we can use the books as guides, 

 but we must study the plants themselves. Louis Agassiz said, 

 "Study Nature, not Books" ; and in studying botany, we should 

 study the nature of plants and not the nature of books. In this 

 brief work we can give but very few of the best known and 

 simplest plans and methods for study and a very brief state- 

 ment of facts. Many volumes have been written on botanical 

 subjects, and botany is now recognized as well worthy of the 

 time and attention of the most learned men and women of our 

 age. When we compare the knowledge that we have of plant 

 life with the many problems of plant life yet unsolved we 

 realize that we know but very little of the subject. Plant life 

 lends itself so readily to observation and study that the pupils 

 of a beginning class may quickly learn many things not recorded 

 in your text-book. 



The first question that you ask when you see a strange 

 plant is, what is its name ? We learn to know plants by their 

 common names, but the common names used in one part of the 

 country may be entirely different from those used in another 

 part, and, of course, the common names must be different in 

 different languages. Therefore, it is necessary for the botanists 

 to use scientific names (mostly Latin) which will be the same 

 in all parts of the world and in all civilized languages. But 

 these names must also show something else, they must show the 

 relationship of plants. This working out of the relationship and 

 classifications of plants is known as systematic botany or tax- 

 onomy. This subject will bo considered again in Chapter V. 



But this is only one phase of botany. We should know 

 something of the structure of plants, of the parts of which they 

 are composed. This study involves the comparison of the 



