PREFACE. HAVING Occasion some years since to select some botanical books for introduction into a ladies' school, my search impressed me with the idea that those written for study were either shallow, like Priscilla Wakefield's; or abstruse, like Dr. Lindley's-not more abstruse perhaps than a person of mature intellect would desire, but still too much so for the young; while the whole of them, without I believe an exception, are written as if the author considered the acquisition of a few difficult terms to be all in all. I take a different view of these matters, and the eulogium I may be said to have passed on the subject of plants, in the introductory chapters of my various books, are my real sentiments as to the uses of the science of botany, and the delights the study of it is capable of affording. Learning of all kinds is but a means towards an end, and that end is the happiness of ourselves, and the benefit of others. Applying this observation particularly to the examination and cultivation of flowers, it would follow that a botanical book should at the same time teach the technical part of the science, show its applicability to useful |