PREFACE. 
Recent changes of syllabus in Teachers’ D, Publie Service 
Entrance and similar examinations have made it impossible for 
candidates to sit for Botany and other science subjects without 
doing a considerable amount of practical work. ‘To supply 
directions for such work, and at the same time to cover fully 
the whole Botany course prescribed for each of the above 
examinations, are the main objects of this book. English text- 
books, designed to meet English needs, and dealing almost 
exclusively with English plants, are unsuited to the require- 
ments of New Zealand students; while such New Zealand text- 
books as deal with the subject treat almost exclusively of 
Morphology and Classification, and thus leave practically 
untouched the important branches of Ecology and Physiology, 
so that the student is left without guidance in such matters as 
the ‘Struggle for Existence,’’ ‘‘ Adaptation to Surroundings, ’’ 
‘Plant Societies,’’ ‘‘Germination,’’ and ‘‘Nutrition.’’ There are, 
of course, admirable works, like those of Dr. Cockayne, which 
deal with one or more branches of New Zealand Botany; but 
these are not written nor are they intended for school purposes. 
The author, therefore, believes that by bringing together and 
correlating these different matters his book will supply a real 
want. 
In selecting plant types, care has been taken to exclude 
those that are difficult of access; while, in the matter of experi- 
ments, only those have been described, which, after frequent 
repetition, have been found capable of producing obvious 
results without the use of elaborate apparatus or the need for 
specially skilful manipulation. 
The student should realize at the outset that Botany is 
pre-eminently a subject demanding, in all its branches, personal 
investigation of things, not words. Merely to read the descrip- 
tion of an experiment is a proceeding barren of useful result, 
but to carry it out with one’s own hands, and thus directly to 
verify or discover, is to open a door of knowledge that can 
never again be shut. 
