PREFACE. 
This book has grown out of the author’s experience in 
the lecture room and laboratory, while giving instruction 
to students in the Short Course in Agriculture, in the 
University of Wisconsin. 
It is intended especially for students who have had little 
or no previous instruction in botany, and it is hoped that it 
may also be found interesting and profitable to the general 
reader who would learn more of the principles that underlie 
the culture of plants. 
It is expected that tbe instructor will amplify the text 
in proportion to the time at his command, and the capacity 
of his students. In the author’s practice, the first three 
chapters have been found sufficient for a term of twelve 
weeks, and the remaining chapters, supplemented with some 
special work in horticulture, have served for a second term. 
A syllabus of laboratory work is added as an appendix. 
It is hoped that this book may prove as useful to other 
instructors as it has proved to the author during its 
evolution. 
Madison, Wis., Feb. 15, 1897. E. S. GOFF. 
