U PREFACE. 



tion of botanical books is so obvious as seems scarcely 

 to need noticing here, yet I have seen those who were 

 by no means deficient in literature, go to an elementary 

 treatise such as Smith's, and search it in vain for the 

 description of some unknown plant they had met with. 



The object of the present treatise has not been to 

 bring forward any thing new in elementary botany, or 

 to alter what has been before established $ but merely 

 to collect and arrange the most important " outlines' 9 

 of the subject in a concise form, and illustrate them by 

 examples of native plants, affording a volume of a 

 moderate price for the uqe of schools and students. 



For several years I have occasionally given instruc- 

 tions in various places, to classes of young people $ in 

 several instances to boarding schools of young ladies 

 and misses, who have generally acquired the elements 

 with great facility. In giving these instructions I uni- 

 formly felt the want of such a work as this is intend- 

 ed to be. Other instructers informed me that they 

 experienced the same* These were the circumstances 

 which induced me to prepare the following pages. 



Lately I have delivered lectures on botany in Dart- 

 mouth College and to a private class in the Medical 

 Institution of Yale College. The students in both in- 

 stances were anxious to obtain a concise work contain- 

 ing the most essential elements, as they had scarcely 



