PREFACE. 



BOTANICAL works are of two kinds, elementary and 

 practical. The design of an elementary treatise on 

 botany, is to enable the student by the help of a prac- 

 tical work, to find out the name and history of an un- 

 known plant in the most expeditious and certain man- 

 ner. This it does by making him acquainted, in the 

 first place, with the marks or characters by which plants 

 are distinguished from each other, such as the forms of 

 the leaves, the number of parts in the flower, &c. and 

 with the terms applied to those characters ; and in the 

 second place, with a system, by which these characters 

 are used to the best advantage, and a multitude of 

 descriptions so methodized, that the description of 

 an individual can be determined with expedition and 

 certainty. 



Practical works contain no explanations of terms ov 

 system, but presuming the student to be already ac- 

 quainted with these, proceed immediately to make use 

 of them in the descriptions of plants. 



Elementary works are to practical ones what a 

 spelling book, dictionary, and grammar are to works 

 of history, poetry, &c. Notwithstanding this distinc- 



