tKEFACE V 



Most of the redrawn illustrations (not microscopical) from 

 various European sources are by Mr. Fischer. Most of the 

 microscopical ones (and a number of figures from nature) are 

 by Dr. J. W. Folsom of the University of Illinois, and many 

 of both classes are by Mr. Mathews. Thanks are due to 

 Professor J. M. Holzinger of the Winona (Minn.) State 

 Normal School, to Professor L. Murbaeh of the Detroit High 

 School, and to Mr. I. S. Cutter of Lincoln, Nebraska, for 

 their many discriminating criticisms of the proof of Parts I 

 and II. Mr. Samuel P. Tower of the Boston English High 

 School, Professor Charles V. Piper of the Washington State 

 Agricultural College, and Dr. Eodney H. True, Lecturer on 

 Botany at Harvard University, have all read the whole or 

 large portions of Part I and* given valuable suggestions. 

 Professor W. P. Ganong, of Smith College, has read and 

 criticised Part II. 



The chapters on spore-plants, excepting a small amount of 

 matter retained from the Elements of Botany, are entirely the 

 work of Mr. A. B. Seymour of the Cryptogamic Herbarium of 

 Harvard University. 



The author has attempted to steer a middle course between 

 the advocates of the out-of-door school and of the histological 

 school of botany teaching. He has endeavored never to use a 

 technical term where he could dispense with it, and on the 

 other hand, not to become inexact by shunning necessary 

 terms. In deciding questions of this sort, a priori reasoning 

 is of little value ; one must ascertain by repeated trials how 

 much of a technical vocabulary the average beginner in botany 

 can profitably master. The teacher who has discovered that 

 not one of the boys in a division of thirty-six pupils knows 

 that his own desk-top is of cherry wood may well hesitate 

 about beginning his botany teaching with a discourse on cen- 

 trospheres and karyokinesis. It has been assumed throughout 

 this book that, other things being equal, the knowledge is of 



