PREFACE 
While in the different sciences there are a large 
number of text-books treating of the fundamental 
principles thereof, still it does not seem desirable to 
employ the same manner of treatment in teaching dif 
ferent classes of students whose ultimate aims are in 
many instances quite diverse. This knowledge should 
be adapted to tbe particular needs of the students in 
the different departments, and for this reason there are 
likely to be as many different classes of text-books as 
there are sub-departments of each of the sciences. 
This book is written to meet the individual 
needs of the author in his work as a teacher of 
botany and pharmacognosy, and this statement, it is 
hoped, will at once explain both its limitations and 
scope. 
The subject of morphology is more or less extensively 
treated, particularly that of the plant cell, because this 
knowledge is of fundamental importance in the study 
of vegetable drugs. A knowledge of outer mor- 
phology is important in the description and identifica- 
tion of crude drugs, and a knowledge of inner mor- 
phology becomes of prime importance in the study of 
powdered drugs, as well as of value, in some instances, 
in the study of crude drugs. 
The material used in connection with the prepara- 
tion of the text has been largely furnished by medici- 
nal plants and the commercial vegetable drugs. It is 
interesting to note what a rich field is here at command, 
and which may be readily drawn upon, for the study of 
the many diversified forms of cells and cell-contents as 
well as the study of the morphology of the different 
parts of the plant. 
