PREFACE 



I HAVE not attempted in this little book to 

 cover the whole ground indicated by its title. 

 My object has rather been to try to place before 

 the reader a few of the salient features of plant 

 form from the point of view of function. In 

 this way, as I think, it is less difficult to keep 

 in mind the general nature of the causes which 

 have been operative in bringing about the 

 marvellous beauty and adaptedness of form 

 which is so apparent in every branch of the 

 vegetable kingdom. 



The task of selection has not proved an 

 easy one, and nobody can be more fully alive 

 to the imperfections of treatment, and other 

 sins of commission and omission, than I am 

 myself. Some, at any rate, of the last-named 

 defects are attributable to the limitations 

 of space. 



I have deliberately touched, though with 

 enforced brevity, on certain of the more 

 difficult problems which are even now con- 

 fronting us, and I have endeavoured to 

 present them with as little technicality as 

 possible, but whether I have been successful 

 in this I must leave to the judgment of 

 others. 



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