PREFACE 



THERE is something in an experiment which appeals to the 

 mind of the young. The innate desire to find out what is in a 

 toy, how it works, and why various things happen, is largely 

 responsible for this. 



Chemistry and physics owe their great popularity to the 

 fact that they have been taught by experiment. Zoology and 

 botany have always been less popular because they have often 

 been taught without experimentation. 



In the days when morphology was the summum bonum of 

 botanical study, there could be small room for experiment. 

 But in these later years, when the science has been taught 

 more along physiological lines, the use of experiment has 

 come into more general vogue. 



It is the purpose of this little book to teach botany by ex- 

 periment. Plants yield themselves very readily to experiment. 

 Being alive, they respond to all external influences most ad- 

 mirably, and there is no reason why such work with plants 

 should not prove as interesting and as useful as similar exer- 

 cises with levers, lenses, vibrating pendulums, and cords. 



It is hoped that something may be found in this book which 

 will remedy the inadequacy which exists in the laboratory in- 

 struction of many schools. 



The work is not entirely physiological in character, but it 

 has been thought wise to present the morphological part also 

 in the form of experiments. 



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