PREFACE. 



Outlines of Plant Life has been prepared at the request 

 of the publishers to meet the wants of those schools which 

 can give only a part of a year to botany and prefer a sim- 

 pler text than the author's earlier work. 



To simplify the already elementary Plant Life has not 

 been easy. The present book differs from the former one 

 chiefly in (i) the omission of all account of the minute 

 anatomy of plants, upon the assumption that no laboratory 

 work with the compound microscope is possible; (2) in the 

 elimination of the greater part of the chapter on sexual re- 

 production because of the difficulty of comprehending its 

 processes and their significance without laboratory study, 

 which is almost impossible in many schools under existing 

 conditions of time and equipment; (3) in the omission of 

 some of the less important paragraphs here and there, and 

 the reduction of others to small type, indicating at a glance 

 parts which may be omitted without interrupting the conti- 

 nuity of the discussion. 



The parts on Physiology and Ecology are less changed 

 than others, because these are the subjects toward which, 

 happily, elementary study is being more and more directed, 

 since they give meaning to the study of form and structure. 

 The study of the parts of a loom may be interesting in itself, 

 but it becomes of the greatest significance when it enables 

 the student to understand the working of the machine and 

 the output of the factory. How can any teacher or pupil 



