PREFACE. 
11 
book; but all such attempts will be futile. For the 
very essence of this method is that the pupil must 
himself find out what he wants to know, and the 
repetition of observations, their comparison, and veri¬ 
fication in determining characters, make it indispen¬ 
sable that book and plant should go together. Only 
as a manual of practice in the hands of the learner 
can the present book subserve the purpose for which 
it was prepared. 
In the preparation of the present cheaper edition 
of u The First Book of Botany, 99 while its essential 
plan has been in no wise altered, several changes have 
been made. Some of the larger and less important 
illustrations have been omitted, and a few others sub¬ 
stituted ; the observations upon flowers have been 
extended, and slight additions made to the text; 
while, by resetting, the whole matter has been brought 
within smaller compass. 
