Introduction. 9 



we have here written, that our purpose is to make this work 

 too dry and scientific for general perusal. Such is by no 

 means our intention. We believe that such a work can be 

 rendered sufficiently scientific at once and popular : that with- 

 out sacrificing science to popularity, the two can be so com- 

 bined as to instruct at the same time and to please. We are 

 well aware that too many consider the difficulties which must 

 be overcome before any considerable knowledge of Botany can 

 be obtained, to be more than a sufficient bar to their efforts. 

 Difficulties, it is true, exist, and are of the essence of the sub- 

 ject ; but none which, for all the purposes at least of this 

 work, a diligent student cannot master; though, as we have 

 before intimated, no royal road through them exists. 



Many are also deterred from seeking a knowledge of Bota- 

 ny, by a misapprehension of the true character of the science. 

 They believe the end proposed by its pursuit to be only the filling 

 of their minds with a mass of unmeaning technicalities, and 

 hard and unintelligible names. A greater mistake cannot 

 possibly be made. Nomenclature is indeed of only secondary 

 importance, and without going so far as to assert with Rous- 

 seau that " one may become a first rate botanist, without 

 knowing a single plant by its name," we may safely say 

 that he will never become a botanist who learns nothing 

 of plants except their names. Such knowledge would 

 truly be useless, meagre and insipid enough. But the pecu- 

 liarities or structure and of vital action, the remarkable opera- 

 tions of nature in adapting the physiological arrangements of 

 plants to the functions which they are destined to perform, the 

 singularities of their internal and external developement, the 

 combination of vessels, of nerves and of tissues of which they 

 are formed, so miraculously and beautifully fitted for the offi- 

 ces of sustentation and increase, form matters of inquiry and 

 of reflection which cannot fail, in a well regulated mind, to 

 instil ideas of the most elevated and inspiring character, and 

 to lead the heart of the thoughtful student from an observation 



