2 INTRODUCTION. 



Those who wish to make solid advances in the science of Botany 

 will find the following instruments indispensably necessary : 



1. A microscope.* 



2. A good pocket lens. 



2, Scissors, knife, needle, and pincers. 



4. Certain re-agents, as Iodine dissolved separately in water 

 and in alcohol, liquid Ammonia, Sulphuric Acid, Nitric Acid, 

 Alcohol, Ether, &c. 



3. In relation to other sciences, Botany has to solve the 

 following problems : 



1. For Chemistry, must be resolved in the plant, as in the 

 simplest case, the question how organic combinations arise from 

 inorganic elements. 



2. For Physiology to lay its simplest and most general founda- 

 tions. 



Hence it is an indispensable branch of knowledge for the Che- 

 mist and the Physiologist. 



In practical applications it subserves : 



1. Agriculture ; as it teaches the conditions of the life of plants. 



2. Pharmacy ; as it affords a knowledge of the officinal plants, 

 and gives, through the study of structural relations, the most secure 

 and often the only indications for the distinction of the drugs de- 

 rived from the vegetable kingdom. 



In all these cases, it is the physiology of plants which is alone of 

 use. A knowledge of the systematic arrangement of plants is only 

 of importance to the botanist : for all others it is a pastime, if not a 

 waste of time. 



4, The facts of the whole science, for the sake of study and 

 facility of comprehension, may be divided in the most intelligible 

 manner according to the following scheme : 



1. Vegetable Chemistry. 



2. Study of the Plant-Cell. 



3. Morphology, or study of the Forms of Plants and their Organs. 



4. Organology, or study of the Life of the entire Plant and its 

 Organs. 



* See Preface. 



