PREFACE, 



JL HE progress of botanical science in the United States 

 has been so rapid during the last few years, that new works, 

 containing the discoveries continually making, are, from 

 time to time, required. The excellent Flora of Mr. Pursh, 

 which appeared in 1814, exhibited all that was then on re- 

 cord, as well as all which the enterprising author himself 

 discovered, relative to North-American botany. Since that 

 lime have appeared the " Genera of North-American Plants," 

 by Mr. Nuttall, a work which has contributed more than 

 any other to advance the accurate knowledge of the plants 

 of this country ; Mr. ElHott's excellent " Sketch of the Bo- 

 tany of Georgia and South-Carolina ;" " Barton^s Flora of 

 North-America," besides numerous monographs and miscel- 

 laneous observations on North-American plants, published in 

 various scientific journals. A considerable number of out- 

 plants have also found their way to Europe, and have there 

 been described and illustrated by the most celebrated botanists 

 of the age. A small proportion, however, of North-American 

 plants, even of those growing in the most explored parts, 

 have yet been attentively examined. 



Having devoted a number of years to the study of the plants 

 of this country, particularly those of the northern and middle 

 parts of the United States, the author conceived that a 

 Flora embracing this section, would be a proper counter part 

 to the work of Mr. Elliott on the Botany of the Southern 

 States. He accordingly commenced collecting materials 

 for the present- work; and, after much labour and care, 

 he at length ventures to submit it to the public. The ad- 

 vantage of local Floras is now generally acknowledged ; as 

 their authors, it is presumed, must be better acquainted with 

 the plants of which they treat than with those of a more ex- 

 tensive district; they are the means of recording many 

 facts and observations, and minute descriptions, which could 

 not be introduced into general works; they also increase our 

 knowledge of vegetable geography. 



It has been the object of the author to bring together all that 

 has hitherto been published on the subjects embraced by this 

 work, and to add such observations as his own opportuni- 

 ties have enabled him to make. In prosecuting this task 



