6 PHILD^^JOPHICAL NOTE.-? ON 



This done, there are several ways of disposing of }onr written 

 thoughts : — 



(a.) You can burn the papers they are written on, or otherwise 

 destroy them ; 



{b.) You can leave them in a drawer, as a legacy to your 

 heirs I 



If by neither of these processes can you entirely give yourself 

 repose, then the most effective way of ridding yourself of the 

 worry of such thoughts is to have them published (if any publisher 

 M'ill perform this kind office), and to see them adversely criticised, 

 if anyone will take even so much trouble. 



Then it will begin to dawn upon you that your thoughts may 

 not have been worth the pen, ink, and paper consumed in recording 

 them, and by degrees they will fade into oblivion, and leave you 

 in jjeace. 



It does not follow, of course, that the critic is infallible. On 

 the contrary, it has happened over and over again that the light of 

 his lantern was dimmer than that of the author's. 



The Avhole mental process I have been reviewing is like that of 

 a lover towards his lovee. In the morning, in the night, through- 

 out the day, he is haunted with the figure of her, without whom, 

 to liim, there can be no peace. This persecution goes on until he 

 marries her, w^hen perhaps one fine day he finds he is criticised 

 severely, and ji sort of disillusion begins to replace his enthusiasm. 



I would ask the reader to consider that these pages contain 

 *' Notes,"* and not a treatise. They are l)adly arranged, as notes 

 olten ai-e, and badly digested, but they may Ix^ of use to some one 

 who takes sufficient interest in the study of plant (;volution. 



The object of these pages is to endeavour to simplify the con- 

 ception of the living tiling Ave call a j)lant ; to exhibit in simple 

 language, as far as that is possible, the unity which underlies not 

 only th(,' infinite variations of plants of all sorts, but also the 

 numerous variations of the parts, which make up a plant ; in 

 short, to euileavour to lay the foundation of a " philosophy of 

 plants," after removing, if po.ssible, from all plant lore the troubles 

 and obscurities engendeicd, not by the plants themselves, but by 

 the multitude of words, which have been invented to explain what 



* I had called them " botanicul notes," hecause they concern plants, and 

 toot because I have any pretension to botanical knowied<re. 



