viii 



PREFACE. 



plete work on this subject should be early forthcoming, in fur- 

 therance of which it would be well that it met with the same 

 liberal patronage as that given to a work completed last year 

 under the auspices of the Council of Education at South 

 Kensington, for teaching systematic and structural botany 

 only. This great work consists of coloured diagrams, drawn 

 on large sheets of paper, illustrating the characters of about 

 130 families of plants, each accompanied by a dried specimen 

 of a species typical of the family, with a brief notice of the 

 characters and properties of each. Each sheet, with its 

 specimen, is fixed in a frame for suspension as a picture, 

 seventy of which form a set. One hundred of these sets 

 have been thus prepared. 



In order to enable learners to become readily acquainted 

 with the principal organs of plants, I have given a few wood- 

 cuts showing the typical forms of flowers and their parts, as 

 also 16 plates by Mr. W. Fitch, exhibiting the natural forms 

 of species characteristic of the classes, not as they grow inter- 

 mixed in nature, but as scientifically arranged in botanic 

 gardens, by which the eye readily becomes familiar with the 

 aspect of families. 



It only remains for me to return thanks to Dr. Hooker for 

 loan of books, to Professor Oliver for special botanic infor- 

 mation, and to Eobert Heward, F.L.S., and Mr. Jackson, 

 curator of the Kew Museum, for correction of the proof- 

 sheets. 



John Smith. 



Kew, March, 1871. 



