INTRODUCTION 



TO THE AMERICAN EDITION 



THE growing love of horticulture, both in England and 

 America, is continually demanding new hand-books of bo- 

 tanical knowledge. Although a most attractive science, 

 the study of botany has, until within a very few years, 

 received but little attention ; there have been few scholars 

 and few teachers. < The garden in which grow the fairest 

 of the children of nature has been surrounded by an almost 

 impenetrable hedge of technicalities, of uninteresting de- 

 tail, and seemingly unmeaning nomenclature ; so that few 

 have had the courage to attempt to break through so formi- 

 dable a barrier. 



Although never wholly ignored, the study of botany, as 

 pursued in our schools and colleges, has been a mere farce ; 

 while recognized as a branch of study, no special attention 

 has been devoted to it, and no branch of natural science 

 has been so completely neglected. While a few, animated 

 by a love of botanical pursuits, have availed themselves of 

 all opportunities for study and investigation which were 

 available, the mass of educated men have been content to 

 remain in ignorance of even the rudiments of the science, 

 until botany was almost regarded as a pursuit for a special- 



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