PREFACE 



In all teaching of plants and animals to beginners, the 

 plants themselves and the animals themselves should be 

 made the theme, rather than any amount of definitions and 

 of mere study in books. The book will be very useful in 

 guiding the way, in arranging the subjects systematically, 

 and in explaining obscure points ; but if the pupil does not 

 know the living and growing plants when he has completed 

 his course in botany, he has not acquired very much that 

 is worth the while. 



It is well to acquaint the beginner at first with the main 

 features of the entire plant rather than with details of its 

 parts. He should at once form a mental picture of what 

 the plant is, and what are some of its broader adaptations 

 to the life that it leads. In this book, the pupil starts with 

 the entire branch or the entire plant. It is sometimes said 

 that the pupil cannot grasp the idea of struggle for exist- 

 ence until he knows the names and uses of the different 

 parts of the plant. This is an error, although well estab- 

 lished in present-day methods of teaching. 



Another very important consideration is to adapt the 

 statement of any fact to the understanding of a beginner. 

 It is easy, for example, to fall into technicalities when dis- 

 cussing osmosis ; but the minute explanations would mean 

 nothing to the beginner and their use would tend to con- 

 fuse the picture which it is necessary to leave in the pupil's 

 mind. Even the use of technical forms of expression would 

 probably not go far enough to satisfy the trained physicist. 



