PEEFACE. 



The present text-book is, for the most part, an expansion 

 of the manuscript notes which have for some years formed 

 the basis of the botany-teaching in the Boston English High 

 School. These notes were drawn up by Mr. Samuel F. Tower 

 and the author, for the purpose of establishing what seemed 

 to them a suitable half-year course in botany for pupils of the 

 entering class in that school. 



It will be found that this book differs from most American 

 text-books designed for use in secondary schools, in endeavor- 

 ing to combine in one volume the simplest possible directions 

 for laboratory work with an outline of vegetable anatomy and 

 physiology, and a brief statement of the principles of botani- 

 cal classification. An account of the functions of the tissues 

 or organs described usually follows as closely as may be the 

 account of the parts in question. The attempt is made to 

 discuss plants dynamically rather than statically, to view 

 them as contestants in the struggle for existence, and to con- 

 sider some of the conditions of success and failure in the 

 vegetable world. While the determination of species by 

 means of an artifical key is illustrated, preparation for this 

 process is by no means the main object or even a principal 

 end which the author has had in view. The tendency of 

 botany-teaching seems to be more and more away from the 

 old ideal of enabling one's pupils to run down a species as 

 expeditiously as possible, and teaching them how to preserve 

 a properly ticketed memento of the chase. 



