PEEFACE. Vll 



plants, as, by presenting some of the leading 

 principles of Botany in a familiar manner, to 

 beget in the reader an interest in a study which 

 will at once prove a profitable pleasure and a 

 wholesome recreation. The flora of our own 

 land possesses attractions to all classes, inas- 

 much as it lies within the reach of all. The 

 schoolboy may gather, as he goes, gems from 

 the grassy roadside, which, if they be but the 

 simplest of flowers, will bear the impress of a 

 Divine finger, and convey a lesson of deep in- 

 struction. Let us not then undervalue the 

 least of His works, who created nothing in 

 vain, but who, 



With consummate skill devised the plan 



That creation's every voice should whisper 

 Words of peace, and joy, and hope to man 



