Studying Wild Flowers at Home 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 



OR several summers past, 

 my wife and I have 

 studied botany in such a 

 way that it enters as one 

 of the most enjoyable 

 factors in making up the 

 routine of our daily life. 

 As there are many others 

 who love flowers as we 

 do, it occurred to me that 

 it might be of interest to 

 them to learn how the 

 study of any local flora 

 may become part of one's 

 life and enter into the 

 beauty of home and home 

 interests. 



As it would to a natur- 

 alist and in a general way, 

 the study of botany has 

 always appealed to me, 

 the taste having been 

 confirmed through my in- 

 struction at Cornell under Dr. David Starr Jordan. My work in 

 biology and allied branches has always kept it in abeyance, how- 

 ever, though the photography of flowers has, of late years, often 

 commanded a large share of my time. The love of flowers amounts 

 almost to a passion with my wife. Through the example of my 

 daily scientific work, and through the easy access to my library, 

 where a dozen different treatises on botany may be consulted, she 

 is never more pleased than when she has made out the scientific 

 and English name of any flower we have gathered, with many 

 others, upon any of our frequent tramps over the surrounding 

 country. 



In all this work and investigation, the camera is continually 

 called into service for the photography of flowers and plants, either 

 as we find them in nature or in the studio after they have been 



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