vi PREFACE 



whether such study of plants as is required of all students 

 should be a study primarily of agriculture. In so far as is 

 possible, plant life is presented in this book in terms of 

 its largest relations to human life, but the treatment has in 

 view preparation for life in general, and not preparation 

 for any particular kind of calling. 



Forestry, Plant Breeding, Weeds, Plant Enemies and 

 Diseases, Plant Culture, Decorative Plants, and Economic 

 Bacteria are topics which are discussed where such discus- 

 sion seems pertinent to the general theme, but special 

 chapters are not devoted to these topics. Certainly such 

 topics should form a part of the course, especially if it is 

 a year course, but it is questionable whether special chap- 

 ters on such topics should form a part of the basic text. 

 Such topics, treated in separate chapters, seriously impair 

 that unity of organization which should characterize a 

 foundational text. Also they form that part of the course 

 which the teacher needs to organize largely in terms of the 

 locality. A treatment of the fundamentals of plant life 

 may fit all cases, but any treatment of the topics given 

 above will not fit all cases, and the misfits may do the cause 

 of practical plant study more harm than good. Thus town 

 children and parents have rebelled against plant studies 

 which are purely agricultural. Finally, government and 

 state bulletins of local application and works of reference 

 have been found to be of much better service in the study 

 of such topics than any brief miscellany of facts put 

 together in " special chapters." 



Coherence. — The pupil's facts should hang together for 

 him. In this sort of course he needs to see relationships. 

 This outcome may hardly be expected when there is an 

 overload of facts included for their own sake and at the 

 expense of the course as a whole. Like plants themselves. 



