INTRODUCTION. 



To the beginner in the \\&Q of the microscope, indeed to the 

 beginner in the study of any department of natural history, the 

 name of the specimens found is of the first importance. It is 

 the key that opens the door to further knowledge, and until it 

 is obtained the beginner is helpless; the books are closed to 

 him, all conference with others in reference to the object or 

 specimen is impossible, and, in many, a budding interest that 

 might otherwise bloom and bear fruit is crushed and destroyed. 

 The first question asked is always, " What is it?" and unless the 

 questioner has a kind and experienced friend to whom he can 

 take the specimen, or a book of common objects from which 

 the names of ordinary natural history materials can be ascer- 

 tained, the question is too often unanswered, and the beginner 

 soon loses his relish for the unknown in nature, because to him 

 it always remains the unknowable. 



In England innumerable little hand-books in all departments 

 of natural science are within the reach of every reader, even 

 the least wealthy. They are written in an attractive style, they 

 are usually accurate as far as they go, and they aim to describe 

 the common objects to be found in the green lanes and the 

 woods, the waters of the ponds and streams, and the shallow 

 bays and inlets of the sea, so that any one with the least 

 inclination towards the study of the teeming world of an- 

 imal and vegetable life can, at slight expenditure of time, 

 labor, and money, learn the names of the commonest things 

 A* 



