PREFACE 
There is perhaps no study which gives a greater pleas- 
ure to the niintl than botany in all its details. No stu- 
dy has a more elevating and refining influence w^hen 
pursued for its own sake, than this inexhaustible subject, 
based as it is upon an infinite number of forms -- expres- 
sions of beauty, use and wisdom. 
The forms appeal to us first; their study and natural 
grouping should therefore claim our earlier attention, 
while a knowledge of their anatomy and their very nat- 
ure should be acquired as a necessary complement in or- 
der to get a truer view of plant-life. 
OjJinis vei'a cognitlo cognitlone specif lea iitnitatur , 
(Linnaeus). This is true and this should lead us to the 
study of our plants in their native haunts. Valuable as is 
a knov/ledge, gained by others and handed down to us in 
literature ; yet the best knowledge is acquired through 
the things themselves. 
A knowledge of plant-life has its ow^n reward : si ad 
naturam vives^ numquam eris paufe7^ : si ad opiniones ^ 
7izi7nquatn eris ^//z^^i". [Epicurus ; Seneca, Epist. i6] .The 
aid it gives to th^ philosophic mind is inestimable as the 
created nature is the only rational basis for philosophy. 
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