IV PREFACE. 



may be to the experienced Botanist, are anything 

 rather than illustrative in the eyes of a beginner, 

 who is often fairly lost in a labyrinth of resemblances, 

 differences, and exceptions. One would think mo- 

 dern Botany was like "the art unteachable, un- 

 taught," only to be understood by inspiration. 



The cause of this lies, not in the science itself, so 

 much as in the books that are written concerning 

 it. Since the appearance of my Introduction to the 

 Natural System of Botany in 1880, several works of 

 great merit have been published on the same subject, 

 both in this country and abroad, so that the student 

 is abundantly supplied with guides ; and if his object 

 be to understand it, as an important branch of 

 Natural Science, they are sufficiently well adapted 

 to his purpose ; but for those who would become 

 acquainted with Botany as an amusement and a re- 

 laxation, these works are far too difficult. Treating 

 the subject, as they do in great detail, and without 

 consideration for the unlearned reader, the language, 

 the arguments, and the illustrations employed in them 

 must be unintelligible to those who have no previous 

 acquaintance with Botany ; the characters of the 

 Natural Groupes or Orders, into which the Vegetable 

 Kingdom is divided, are not as a whole, susceptible 

 of such an analysis as a young student is capable of 



