PREFACE 



This work is the outgi-owtk of the author's class work and 

 is an effort to meet present conditions. ■ It is an effort to present 

 as many different phases of the subject as possible and to give 

 the student a very general and very broad view. It is an effort 

 to meet the criticisms that botany, as taught in recent years, is 

 unsatisfactory and unsuited to the needs of the student, and to 

 meet the demands for applied botany by making a combination 

 of the elementary principles of pure and applied science. Or, 

 rather, to present the fundamental principles of botany and at 

 the same time give some idea of the lines of application of the 

 suljiject, which are to be taken up' in more advanced courses. 



The book is intended as a guide for the student, but it is 

 expected that the teacher will expand, reduce or modify such 

 parts as may be necessary to meet conditions or as may be neces- 

 sary to meet his or her ideas of the best method of presenting 

 the subject. J^either the teacher nor the student should be a slave 

 to a text-book of any kind. Books are the records of the work of 

 others and methods for the gaiidance of the students, but there is 

 no botany in the book ; the study of botany is the study of plants. 



The book is not complete; it is intended as an introduction, 

 which must be exp^anded in more advanced courses which may 

 be adjusted and planned to meet the student's needs. However, 

 it is hoped that it will give a broad viewpoint to those who wish 

 to take up the advanced study of the subject, and that those who 

 do not expect to continue the subject will learn to appreciate 

 its importance. 



