I fers 
VJ hog st 
CEE ie / 
INTRODUCTION. 
WIL ILSLSS LIL LISD ILL 
Tux object with which the “ ELemenrary Botany” 
has been written, is not to make Botanists of the 
students or readers of it, but to convey such an amount 
of information upon the subject to the generality of 
learners and especially to the younger portion, as shall 
be a sufficient guide to them to pursue the Study still 
further. : 
The plan which has been adopted is as simple as the 
Author has found it to be in his power to follow out, 
and one which he thinks has not yet obtained in this 
Study, that of commencing with simple views of 
complex objects, and afterwards of admitting combi- 
nations of various kinds, introduced as gradually as 
the subject will admit of. 
The ground which Botany, as a Study, has been 
gaining of late years, would lead to the expectation 
that a more rational view is entertained of this part of 
Natural History, than the idea that it is a mere 
acquaintance with a number of difficult names of 
plants or parts of plants;—that it is, in reality, a Study 
which calls for a careful observation of facts, forms, 
and structure, just as exact and extended as those 
which are needed in the Sister Study, Zoology. 
