v j PLANT STUDIES 



better, they may prefer to combine the two divisions of the 

 book much more intimately. 



In any event, the book is not a laboratory guide, or a 

 book merely for recitation, but is for reading and study in 

 connection with laboratory and field-work. The intention 

 is to present a connected, readable account of some of the 

 fundamental facts of botany, and to give a certain amount 

 of information. If it performs no other service in the 

 schools, however, its purpose will be defeated. It is entire- 

 ly too compact for any such use, for great subjects, which 

 should involve a large amount of observation, are often 

 merely suggested. 



It is intended to serve as a supplement to three far more 

 important factors : (1) the teacher, who must amplify and 

 suggest at every point ; (2) the laboratory, which must bring 

 the pupil face to face with plants and their structures ; 

 (3) field-work, which must relate the facts observed in the 

 laboratory to their actual place in Nature, and must bring 

 new facts to notice which can be observed nowhere else. 

 Taking the results obtained from these three factors, the 

 book seeks to organize them, and to suggest explanations. 

 It seeks to do this in two ways : (1) by means of the text, 

 which is intended to be clear and untechnical, but compact; 

 (2) by means of the illustrations, which must be studied as 

 carefully as the text, as they are only second in importance 

 to the actual material. Especially is this true in reference 

 to the landscapes, many of which can not be made a part of 

 exjierience. 



My thanks are due to various members of the Depart- 

 ment of Botany of the university for preparing and select- 

 ing illustrations. The illustrations of the first fourteen 



