PRp]FACE. 



This manual is designed for the use of secondary schools 

 in the southeastern part of the United States, from North 

 Carolina southward to Florida and westward to Texas. It 

 does not purport to give all the known flowering plants of 

 that region, but gives the more common species blooming in 

 the early summer before the close of the school year, together 

 with a few of those which are prominent later in the season. 

 In the selection of the species given, only such as may be 

 identified with clearness and certainty have been included; 

 while some, although very common, which are separated from 

 others only by minute and technical differences, have been 

 omitted. The object of the work is not so much to enable 

 the student to name the family, genus, and species of every 

 plant he may find, as to enable him to learn how plants are 

 classified, something of the relations and differences of the 

 more important groups, and the process by which an unknown 

 plant may be identified. The ability to identify and name 

 plants is not the object of botanical study, but it is a great 

 assistance in attaining the knowledge which the true student 

 of botany is seeking — an understanding of the laws of lite 

 in tli(^ veujet-ihh' kin.LC'h'iii. 



