iv PREFACE 
reducing the civilized world to a depressing monotony of 
weediness and artificiality. Except for purely systematic and 
anatomical work, flowers can be studied to better purpose in 
their living, active state than as dead subjects for dissection ; 
and the best way to show our interest in them, or to get the 
most rational enjoyment out of them, is not, as a general thing, 
to cut their heads off and throw them away to wither and die- 
by the roadside. The teacher, by instilling into the minds of 
the rising generation a reverence for plant life, may do a great 
deal to aid in the conservation of one of our chief national assets 
for the gratification of the higher esthetic instincts. The fruits 
and flowers of cultivation do not stand in the same need of pro- 
tection, since they are produced solely with a view to the use 
and pleasure of man, and their propagation is provided for to 
meet all his demands. 
To avoid too frequent interruptions of the subject matter, 
the experiments are grouped together at the beginning or end 
of the sections to which they belong, according as they are 
intended to explain what is coming, or to illustrate what has 
gone before. A few exceptions are made in cases where the 
experiment is such an integral part of the subject that it would 
be meaningless if separated from the context. Under no 
circumstances should those capable of being performed in the 
schoolroom be omitted, as much of the information which the 
book is intended to give is conveyed by their means. For this 
reason, and also because the aim of the book is to present the 
science from a practical rather than from an academic point of 
view, the experiments outlined are for the most part of a simple, 
practical nature, such as can be performed by the pupils them- 
selves with a moderate expenditure of ingenuity and money. 
The experience of the writer has been that for the average boy 
or girl who wishes to get a good general knowledge of the 
subject, but does not propose to become a specialist in botany, 
the best results are often obtained by the use of the simplest 
and most familiar appliances, as in this way attention is not 
distracted from the experiment itself to the unfamiliar appa- 
ratus for making it. In saying this, it is not meant to under- 
