PREFACE. 



It is hoped that this brief volume may supply some 

 new facilities to the student who will meet them with 

 reasonable intelligence and faithfulness, for the rapid 

 acqiiisition of a practical knowledge of Botany. It is also 

 hoped that to the person already somewhat versed in the 

 science, it will prove a more ready instrument for a large 

 class of his identifications than any heretofore offered. 

 The first part merely summarizes topics that are the com- 

 mon material of the science, in the common way. A 

 glance at the table of contents, and through the headings 

 of the pages, will sufiiciently indicate the nature of all the 

 divisions of the work except the " Key." In that, the 

 author h9,s good authority for believing that he has intro- 

 duced a method hitherto not applied in American treatises 

 on the science, and also for hoping that the method has 

 (as is not always the case with innovations) enough useful- 

 ness to justify the novelty. For some explanation of the 

 uses of this Key, both as an aid and stimulus to the un- 

 learned, and a labor-saver to those already somewhat 

 acquainted with the science, the reader's patient attention 

 is requested. 



The study of Botany can not become truly profitable 

 until a number of plants have been identified by the 

 student, and their images received into-his memory. 



