PREFACE. 



A FEW words may be said to explain the origin of 

 the work of which the present portion is a first instal- 

 ment. In 1873 I was invited by the Science and Art 

 Department to conduct a course of instruction in what 

 is now the Normal School of Science at South Ken- 

 sington. It was a condition of the undertaking that 

 the instruction should be carried on continuously from 

 day to day and throughout the working hours of each 

 day. My friend Mr. Lawson, late Professor of Botany 

 at Oxford, was so good as to give me his assistance. 

 We had the use of Professor Huxley's convenient and 

 well-appointed laboratory, and we determined to attempt 

 a course of instruction which should embrace the lead- 

 ing morphological facts of every important type in the 

 vegetable kingdom. We, in fact, resolved to adopt 

 exactly the same plan of work as Professor Huxley in 

 his own teaching had found convenient for the animal 

 side of morphology. 



At this time, as far as I am aware, no previous at- 

 tempt had been made in this country to give an extended 



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