PKEFACE 



The favorable reception accorded to the author's revised 

 Elements of Botany has led him to hope that a somewhat fuller 

 book along the same lines might find a place. Accordingly 

 the present work has been prepared especially for the use of 

 secondary schools which devote a year to botany. It will 

 also be found usable in schools which devote less than a year 

 to the subject, but which prefer to spend on the study of 

 spore-plants a considerable portion of the total time available 

 for the science. 



Chapters i-xxi will be found essentially identical with the 

 first twenty-one chapters of the Elements. The matter in 

 Chapters xxiii-xxvii relating to cryptogamic types has been 

 rewritten and much extended. While the number of forms 

 discussed is kept within moderate limits, it is believed that 

 enough types are treated and ^ that the presentation is suffi- 

 ciently full to enable the pupil to realize that each of the 

 higher plants is descended from a series of lower ones. Much 

 detail in the discussion of plant evolution seems too difficult 

 for most secondary schools. 



The experience of a decade has shown that the study of 

 ecology, except in the most elementary form, demands more 

 kinds of knowledge and a better matured judgment than the 

 beginner in botany can command. The teacher who wishes 

 to do more with the subject than is suggested in the present 

 book is referred to Part HI of Bergen and Davis' Laboratory 

 and Field Manual of Botany. 



