PREFACE. 
Tus small volume has been prepared as the result of 
a real necessity for a more careful study of plants and 
their life activities. During a number of years of expe- 
rience as instructors of Botany in the Chicago secondary 
schools, with desirable classes, good laboratories, and 
ample equipment, genuine progress ought to be expected 
in the study of plant life. The work herein indicated 
represents the results of such experience up to the present 
time. As to how well it may succeed in its purpose 
remains for those who use the book to demonstrate, but 
the hope is expressed that it will be found to meet all the 
exacting requirements of to-day reasonably well. 
Few sciences have undergone such marked change in 
nomenclature and interpretation as has the subject of 
Botany. In this series of studies the purpose is to ac- 
quaint the student with plants as living things, potent 
factors for accomplishing certain great and important 
results. It is not so much what the plant is, as what it 
does, that incites to investigation, and the details of 
structure are but used as a sure foundation upon which 
to gather and work out greater problems of function and 
relationship. The life relations and the influence of en- 
vironment are to be prominently studied, also the influ- 
ence of plants on each other, on animals, the soil, water, 
and the atmosphere. With this kind of study in view, 
the “Life Problem” questions have been included. These 
questions are not meant to be exhaustive. Similar ques- 
tions should be added by both the instructor and pupil. 
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