PREFACE 
There is perhaps no study which gives a greater pleas- 
-2 ure to the mindthan does botany inall its details. No 
__ study has a more elevating and refining influence when 
~ 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. 
Omnis vera cognitio cognitione specifica tunitatur. 
(Linnacus). This is true and it should lead us to the 
study of our plants in their native haunts. Valuable as 
is a knowledge, 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 own reward: sz ad 
naturam vives, numguam cris pauper: siad opiniones, 
numguam erts dives. | Epicurus; Seneca, Epist. 16] 
The aid it gives to the philosophic mind is inestimable 
as nature is the only rational basis for philosophy. 
How much easier it is to appreciate the Good, the 
Beautiful andthe True about us, when we have 
some knowledge —be it ever so small— of plant-life and 
