INTRODUCTION 6 



from dead parts of plants that have been preserved in any 

 suitable way, as by drying or by placing in alcohol or other 

 fluids which prevent decay. Living plants must be studied 

 in order to ascertain what kinds of food they take, what 

 kinds of waste substances they excrete, how and where 

 their growth takes place and what circumstances favor it, 

 how they move, and indeed to get as complete an idea as 

 possible of what has been called the behavior of plants. 



Since the most familiar and most interesting plants 

 spring from seeds, the beginner in botany can hardly do 

 better than to examine at the outset the structure of a few 

 familiar seeds, then sprout them and watch the growth of 

 the seedlings which spring from them. Afterwards he 

 may study in a few typical examples the organs, structure, 

 and functions of seed-plants, trace their life history, and 

 so, step by step, follow the process by which a new crop 

 of seeds at last results from the growth and development 

 of such a seed as that with which he began. 



After he has come to know in a general way about the 

 structure and functions of seed-plants, the student may 

 become acquainted with some typical cryptogams or spore- 

 plants. There are so many groups of these that only a 

 few representative ones can be chosen for study. 



