•To learn the characteristics of ~25 common North American plant families and be able to recognize them on sight. 

•To learn the medicinal and economically important plants belonging to the families discussed. 

•To be able to identify any flowering plant, given the appropriate fertile plant material, literature and keys. 

•To have a good knowledge basic plant vegetative and floral morphologic

al terms and how to apply them and know the theories of how flowers have evolved. 

•To develop a fundamental idea of how the plant families discussed are related

 one to the other.