PROFESSOR KER^ER'S PREFACE 



TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 



Not long ago two artisans, who had borrowed a copy of The Natural 

 History of Plants from one of the Vienna public libraries and had 

 studied its pages, called upon me, asking me to show them under the 

 microscope some of the things there described. 



It seems that without any special educational advantages they had 

 availed themselves of leisure moments to extend their knowledge, and 

 had read the work with profit. On leaving, they thanked me in simple 

 words for the pleasure, instruction, and stimulus which they had derived 

 from the perusal of my book. 



I confess that these words gave me vastly more pleasure than many 

 of the verbose and flattering reviews that had appeared in newspapers 

 and scientific journals, many of which conveyed the impression of being 

 the result of hasty skimming of copies sent by the publishers. 



The satisfaction which the little incident gave me was the greater, 

 in that it was an assurance that I had achieved what had been my 

 intention, namely, to write a book which might serve as a source of 

 knowledge, not only for specialists and scholars, but also for the many 

 who, though compelled to follow some practical calling, still take an 

 interest in science, and who wish, each in his own particular degree, 

 to obtain information of its progress. 



Popular treatises on the results of scientific investigation are by no 

 means rare with us Germans; but in too many cases scientific problems 

 involving serious thought are touched superficially, and, like the stone 

 in a sweet fruit, are embedded in picturesque and attractive accounts 

 of things purely of subordinate importance. The reader, gratified by 

 the elegant phraseology, passes by the kernel of fact, and derives little 

 profit from the book. Books such as these have brought the art of 

 popular writing into discredit, and we have arrived at the point when 

 educated people but lightly esteem, or even ignore, the results of careful 



