VIU PREFACE. 



attractive field, may be regarded as a supplement to the now well-known book, 

 the title of which is cited at the beginning of this prefatory note. If my expec- 

 tations are fulfilled, it will add some very interesting chapters to the popular 

 history of Plant-life. 



Although written with a view to elementary instruction, and therefore with all 

 practicable plainness, the subjects here presented are likely to be as novel, and 

 perhaps as interesting, to older as to young readers. 



To those who may wish to pursue such studies further, and to those who will 

 notice how much is cut short or omitted (as, for instance, all reference to dis- 

 coverers and to sources of information), I may state that I expect to treat this 

 subject in a different way, and probably with somewhat of scientific and historical 

 fiilness, in a new edition of a work intended for advanced students. 



A. G. 



Botanic Garden, Harvard University, 

 Febraary 20, 1872. 



Vignette Title-Page. — Left-hand side, an Ivy climbs by rootlets and a Passion-flower 

 by tendrils ; right-hand, a Nepenthes by pitcher-bearing tendrils, and a Moming-Glory by 

 twining stem : bottom, at the left of the centre, a Rhodochiton, and at the right a Maurandia 

 climb by their leafstalks. Bottom, left-hand side, a Green Orchis (Habenaria orbiculata) sends 

 up from between a pair of large round leaves a raceme of long-spurred flowers. Two Orchid 

 Air-plants at the top, viz., Stanhopea tigrina at the centre, a Phalsenopsis at the right-hand 

 corner. Two leaves of Sarracenia rubra, an American Pitcher-plant, rise from near the lower 

 right-hand corner ; in front of thera is a Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia ; at the centre a Venus's 

 Fly-trap, Dionsea muscipula. 



