PREFACE. V 



means of transportation. Ever}' new railroad or canal or highway opens for 

 them a direct line of communication with regions not yet visited, and they in- 

 stantly make use of them all. Every steamship or sailing vessel, whether 

 from across the ocean or coasting along our own shores, aids in the distribu- 

 tion, while all these and similar agencies are but supplementary to those 

 which, entirely apart from civilization, are in constant operation. 



The early inhabitants of New England had scarcely landed on our shores 

 before they found that the Ox-eye Daisy and the Dandelion, together with 

 the Buttercups and Docks and Plantains and a score of similar emigrants 

 from the old world, had accompanied them. And when the tide of travel 

 advanced westward toward the Mississippi river, not only did these same 

 plants follow the same route, but in due time the plants of the prairie, like 

 Riidbeckia hirta (Yellow Daisy or Cone-flower) began to appear in Eastern 

 meadows. These introduced plants are sometimes of great value, like the 

 Grasses and Clovers, but commonly they are the so called weeds of the farm 

 and the garden, and come unbidden and unwelcome. Some come to stay, 

 "Others that appear occasionally about our manufacturing establishments, per- 

 sist for a time only, but finally disappear to be followed very likely by a new 

 importation. Plants of this kind are in some respects more interesting than 

 those of our native Flora, not only because we come more directly in contact 

 with them, but because each has a history behind it and around it, which serves 

 to illustrate the beginnings and the development of that portion of the country 

 where it has found a new home. 



The fields and open woodlands, the roadsides and fence rows, are naturally 

 first visited by the plant collector because easily accessible, but every nook 

 and corner, whether in sunshine or in shade, in its season, has its own share 

 of vegetable as well as animal life, and the lover of Nature who would become 

 thoroughly acquainted with her treasures seeks them everywhere, for the 

 simple reason that they may be found everywhere. The Flora of no section 

 of our country will ever be known so completely that nothing more shall 

 remain to be learned about it. No surprising discoveries of new species may 

 be made, though of this we dare not be too sure, but new chapters in the history 

 of well known plants may be opened, newly arrived immigrants noted, new 

 varieties found, new facts as to distribution and new economical uses as- 

 certained, as well as new relations between the species and its environment 

 in illustration of the conflict all plants are making successfully or unsuc- 

 cessfully for an existence. For reasons like these a region which has been 

 as long settled and is as well known as the one embraced in this Catalogue 

 will never be without interest to the naturalist. 



The relation of what is here called the Hanover Flora to the general New 

 England Flora calls for some brief notice. Thirty miles south of Hanover, in 

 the towns of Charlestown, N. H., and Springfield, Vt., some of the trees and 

 shrubs so common a little farther south in both of these states have already 

 reached their northern limit, and begin to disappear from the native woods. 

 The Chestnut and the Shagbark Hickory are no longer abundant. The sea- 

 son is too short for any considerable quantity of fruit to reach perfection, and 

 seedlings are rare. Trees of these two kinds when planted in sheltered localities 



