How to study wild flowers / by George Henslow.

  • George Henslow
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: How to study wild flowers / by George Henslow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to observe closely, to compare one plant with another, to note their agreements and their differences ; and then it is desirable that he should record his obser- vations in a note-book, and make plenty of sketches of the various parts of flowers, &c. He must on no account be contented with merely knowing the names of plants. His aim should always be first to under- stand thoroughly the entire structure of all flowers he examines, and then to study their interpretation. In other words, he must never rest satisfied until he has learnt the ' Why ' and the ' Wherefore' of every- thing he sees, as far as it is at present possible. But the mere knowledge of the structure of any number of flowers alone will not be sufficient. The student must understand their relationships. To do this, botanists have classified plants into various groups, called families, genera, species, &c.\ and have written ' Floras' or descriptions of every plant in technical botanical terms, and arranged them according to the method of classification adopted by botanists of all countries. The object of the present work is to familiarize the beginner with the majority of the commonest of our wild flowers. It is so far an epitomized flora; but for a more thorough compre- hension of the structure and differences, especially of genera with many sjoecies, the reader must look forward to the use of Sir J. D. Hooker's book entitled The Student's Flora of the British Isles. Hence the plants herein described follow the arrange- ment adopted by that author. This book, however, is something more than a flora; for such a work does not profess to give more than the bare details of structure, so that every plant may be known by a collection of characters taken from all parts of the plant. A beginner, however, naturally asks what is the use of this or that peculiarity in ' To assist beginnei's in the study of flowers, I would recommend my book of eight litliographed plates called Floral DiifsecHons : ' Illus- trative of Typical Genera of itlie British Natural Orders.' It is published by Mr. Stanford, price 3s.