PREFACE 



This book treats the subject of botany from the same point 

 of view that was adopted in the authors' " Practical Botany," 

 but more briefly ; that is, it endeavors to deal with the 

 subject with constant reference to common educational, aes- 

 thetic, and practical interests in plant life. It also emphasizes 

 the dynamic side of botany. The plant is not used primarily 

 as a subject for dissection, nor for making a preserved speci- 

 men, but as an organism with a living to make an organism 

 that is forced to maintain its existence under conditions that 

 are sometimes favorable and sometimes unfavorable to it. 

 Constant effort has been made to render the style of the 

 book simple and direct. 



The object here sought is to present in a short course that 

 kind of botanical knowledge which will especially interest the 

 average secondary-school pupil, and which will be of most serv- 

 ice to him as a means of education. Along with this training a 

 good deal of other knowledge is presented, which should remain 

 as a valued acquisition throughout the student's after life 

 knowledge of forest, field, wayside, farm, orchard, garden, and 

 the industries. Since it has been shown that our disciplinary 

 education may be useful in after life, mainly as the materials 

 studied have elements in common with those later encountered, 

 it becomes imperative that the elementary sciences should uti- 

 lize in their content those things with which people are to come 

 in contact. So much of the materials of botany is encountered 

 by people in general throughout their lives that, according to 

 recently accepted educational theories, this subject should have 



