PREFACE. 



1. THIS Manual has been pre- 

 pared primarily for the use of the students of the Imperial 

 Forest College, Dehra Dun. In the absence of a suitable botani- 

 cal text-book a great deal of the time of the instructors and 

 students at the Forest College has hitherto been spent in dic- 

 tating and copying lecture notes, respectively. The publi- 

 cation of the present Manual, which contains the back-bone, as 

 it were, of the College course of botanical lectures, will enable 

 the instructor to profitably employ much of the time formerly 

 wasted on dictation in repeating parts of the course, in further 

 explaining and illustrating points which are found to give diffi- 

 culty, and in frequently examining and explaining the character- 

 istics of living plants in the field and in class. Although some 

 plants have been mentioned as examples in the Manual, the 

 number of these is necessarily very limited. It must, however, 

 be remembered that much may be learnt from any individual 

 plant and that the constant illustration of the facts mentioned 

 in the lectures by a reference to living plants is essential if the 

 teaching is to be made interesting and of any practical value, 

 and if it is to have any result other than the committal to 

 memory of a mass of imperfectly understood facts to be repro- 

 duced at an examination and then forgotten. 



2. The object of the present 



Manual is to give a general introduction to the science of Botany 

 in accordance with modern knowledge, in so far as this is pos- 

 sible in the limited time available for botanical instruction at 

 the Forest College, particular attention being paid to those 

 points which at present seem to be of special importance for the 

 Forest Officer in India. 



3. I have throughout endea- 

 voured to keep in view the needs of the practical Forest Officer. 



