IV PMEFACE. 



For several years the author has been deeply interested in the 

 teaching of elementary botany, and has had an opportunity to 

 study methods in a practical way, in having charge of the in- 

 struction of a large class of beginners, the majority of whom 

 had never studied the subject before. One of the great diffi- 

 culties encountered in attempting to introduce the study of the 

 lower plants is the fact that these plants are in most cases en- 

 tirely unknown to the pupil. The difficulty does not lie in the 

 attempt to introduce the study of unknown objects. But it lies 

 rather in the attempt to study the lower plants, at the outset, in 

 a more or less thorough manner, to learn their characters, rela- 

 tionships, etc., in order to group them into their natural orders. 

 This is attempting too much for the young beginner, to whom 

 these plants are totally unfamiliar objects. 



The method followed in this book has been thoroughly tested 

 in practical work. It is to first study some of the life processes 

 of plants, especially those which illustrate the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of nutrition, assimilation, growth, and irritability. In 

 studying each one of these topics, plants are chosen, so far as 

 possible, from several of the great groups. Members of the 

 lower plants as well as of the higher plants are employed, in order 

 to show that the process is fundamentally the same in all plants. 

 Then another process is studied in a similar way, using so far as 

 possible, especially where the lower plants are concerned, the 

 same plant. In this way the mind is centered on this process, 

 and the discovery to the pupil that it is fundamentally the same 

 in such widely different plants arouses a keen interest not only 

 in the plants themselves, but in the method which attends the 

 discovery of this general principle. In the study of the life 

 processes, the topics can be arranged so that they show progres- 

 sion of function. 



At the same time it is well for the teacher to select for this 

 study of the life processes those plants which represent well the 

 great groups, and show gradual progression of form and struc- 

 ture, and also those which are easily obtained. 



A second period of the session can then be devoted to study- 



