Chapter II: Preface: To Second Edition

The public and the critics have been so kind to the first edition of this book that I am encouraged to offer them a second. There are no considerable changes in it, but I have profited by some suggestions regarding points of detail which several friends have been good enough to offer, and hope that the book has now fewer blemishes, and will be more useful. In Chapter XXXIV. two interesting photographs of drowning trees have been added, which illustrate a problem in Ecology less generally studied than its converse.

It has been very pleasant to hear from many teachers, some in distant parts of the earth, that the book has been useful to them, and I hope they will continue to allow me the privilege of their criticism or appreciation.

M. C. STOPES

The University, Manchester,
~October 1910~.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

For the right to reproduce the photographs I am much indebted to the following gentlemen, to whom I express my warm thanks: viz. to the Rev. J. S. Lea, of Kirkby Lonsdale, for Plate VII. and fig. 149; to Prof. F. W. Oliver, of London, for Plate VI.; to Dr. O. V. Darbishire, of Manchester, for Plate IV. and fig. 130; to Prof. K. Fujii, of Tokio, for Plate III.; to Dr. F. F. Blackman, of Cambridge, for fig. 144; to Mr. Crump, of Halifax, for fig. 140; to Mr. R. Welch, of Belfast, for Plates I. and V., and fig. 138; to Dr. H. Bassett for figs. 154 and 155.

To Dr. W. E. Hoyle of Manchester, and to Miss Mary McNicol, B.Sc., I am also much indebted for their kindness in reading the proof-sheets.

I have drawn all the text illustrations specially for this book.

M. C. S.

CONTENTS

PART I.

THE LIFE OF THE PLANT

CHAP. PAGE
I. Introductory 1
II. Signs of Life 4
III. Seeds and Seedlings 8
IV. Food Materials of the Older Plant--1. In the Soil 14
V. Food Materials of the Older Plant--2. In the Air 18
VI. The Food Manufactured by the Plant 23
VII. The Circulation of Water 28
VIII. Light and its Influences 35
IX. Growth in Seedlings 40
X. Movement 45
Summary of Part I. 49

PART II.

THE PARTS OF A PLANT’S BODY, AND THEIR USES

XI. Roots 53
XII. Stems 58
XIII. Leaves 64
XIV. Buds 72
XV. Flowers 78
XVI. Fruits and Seeds 86
XVII. The Tissues Building up the Plant Body 92

PART III.

SPECIALISATION IN PLANTS

XVIII. For Protection against Loss of Water 99
XIX. Specialisation for Climbing 104
XX. Parasites 109
XXI. Plants which eat Insects 114
XXII. Flower Structures in Relation to Insects 118

PART IV.

THE FIVE GREAT CLASSES OF PLANTS

XXIII. Flowering Plants 125
XXIV. The Pine-Tree Family 127
XXV. Ferns and their Relatives 133
XXVI. Mosses and their Relatives 138
XXVII. Algæ and Fungi 141

PART V.

PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES

XXVIII. Hedges and Ditches 145
XXIX. Moorland 153
XXX. Ponds 159
XXXI. Along the Shore 165
XXXII. In the Sea 173
XXXIII. Plants of Long Ago 178
XXXIV. Physical Geography and Plants 182
XXXV. Plant Maps 188
XXXVI. Excursions and Collecting 194
Index 197