Excerpt from The Natural History of Plants: Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution
That plants, like animals, are possessed of instinct and endowed with sensation; that in fact no marked boundary-line exists between the world of plants and the world of animals, are curious truths, of which the fewest of us were aware, but which are here made plain. The reader will indeed find matter of novel and entrancing interest on every page. He will read of rootless plants free to move from place to place, of plants whose roots hang suspended in mid-air, of strange carnivorous plants that capture their prey in traps and pitfalls of cunning device, of parasitic plants that live and are nourished, some on fellow-plants, others on animals. He will find described, not merely our own familiar vegetation, but the whole worlds flora, in its relation to the Science of Biology.
While, therefore, all lovers of nature will find THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS an inexhaustible treasure-house, to the specialist and serious student of Botany the variety and freshness of its facts and the beauty and fidelity of its illustrations render it a necessary possession. Very many of the facts recorded are the result of the author's long-continued observation, and are here made accessible for the first time.
The English translation has been carried out by Professor F. W. Oliver, University College, London, assisted by Marian Busk, B.Sc., and Mary F. Ewart, B.Sc. It possesses the great merit of maintaining at once the simplicity and readableness, and the scientific accuracy and precision of the original.
The pictorial illustrations, executed under the authors own supervision, form a very notable feature. They consist of about 1000 engravings on wood, and 16 plates in colours. The woodcuts have, with a few exceptions, been specially drawn and engraved for the work, and are remarkable for beauty, as well as for truth to nature. The coloured plates, also original, while imparting brightness to the pages, are not merely decorative, but are of much scientific value as exhibiting the plants in their natural surroundings. Indeed, they form in themselves a contribution to Botany of no mean order.
While the book has been written in the main in untechnical language, it has nevertheless been thought well to append a glossary to it, in which such technical terms as could not be dispensed with will be explained.
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