Care has been taken to select, as types for study, animals and plants which are at the same time representative and easily obtainable,[1] and I have been further guided in the selection by the Board of Education Syllabuses of the King’s Scholarship Examination and Section I. of the Elementary Stage of General Biology, the subjects of which are included in the volume. The book has, however, a considerably wider scope than is indicated in these syllabuses, and will therefore, I hope, be found useful not only in schools and training-colleges, and to examination candidates, but also to members of field clubs and to students of natural history generally. It has been necessary to arrange the chapters with some attempt at logical sequence, but it is not supposed that this order will be adhered to in practice; by the aid of the monthly nature-calendar, together with numerous cross-references, it will be found easy to take up the work at any point. The chapters are divided into sections, each of which consists of two parts: First, precise instructions for practical observations and experiments, designed to exercise the reasoning faculties of the students; and, second, a descriptive portion, in which the meaning and relation of the results obtained are discussed. At the end of each chapter is a number of additional exercises, either original or taken from past examination papers. Of the latter class, questions to which dates are affixed have been set by the Board of Education, while those [Pg vii] marked “N.F.U.” are selected from National Froebel Union tests. In many cases, the exercises provide subjects for further observation and experiment, as well as for written description. Much trouble has been taken in the selection of the illustrations, many of which have been expressly drawn or photographed for this book. Through the kindness of the publishers I have been able to include illustrations from Strasburger’s Text-Book of Botany, Parker and Haswell’s Text-Book of Zoology, The Cambridge Natural History, and other books; and Mr. Ernest Evans has courteously consented to the use of a number of figures from his Botany for Beginners. The following illustrations have been prepared from photographs supplied by Mr. J. C. Shenstone, F.L.S., Vice-President of the Essex Field Club: Figs. 27, 57, 65, 67 to 71, 74, 75, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 87, 89, 92, 94, 95, 102 to 110, 120, 136, 145, 149, 152 and 153; while Figs. 180, 196, 200, 201, 203, 205, and 211 are reproduced, by permission, from Pike’s Woodland, Field, and Shore (Religious Tract Society). Finally, I must acknowledge gratefully the continuous help which, at every stage in the preparation of the book, I have received from Professor R. A. Gregory and Mr. A. T. Simmons, B.Sc.—help as valuable as it was generous.