2 IXTRODl'CTOR\ PAGES. 



connection with the northern part of the Douro, — now a branch rail- 

 road from Peterboro' terminates in the flourishing village where once 

 the writer wandered among the forest pines looking for wild flowers 

 and ferns. 



As to the roads, one might say, with the Highland traveller, 



" Had you hut seen these roads before they were made 



" You'd have lift up your hands and have blessed General Wade." 



The only habitations, beyond our own log cabin at the date of 



which I write, were one shanty, and the log house of a dear, lamented 



and valued brother, the enterprising pioneer, the founder of that 



prosperous village of Lakefield. 



It may easily be imagined that there were few objects of interest in 



the woods at that distant period of time — 1832 — or as a poor Irish 



woman sorrowfully remarked, " 'Tis a lonesome place for the likes of us 



poor women folk ; sure there isn't a hap'orth worth the looking at; there 



is no nothing, and it's hard to get the bit and the sup to ate and to 



drink." 



Well, I was better off than poor Biddy Fagan, for I soon found 



beauties in my forest wanderings in the unknown trees and plants of the 



forest. These things became a great resource, and every flower and 



shrub and forest tree awakened an interest in my mind, so that I began 



to thirst for more intimate knowledge of them. They became like dear 



friends, soothing and cheering, by their sweet unconscious influence, 



hours of loneliness, and hours of sorrow and suffering. 



Having never made botany a study, and having no one to guide 



and assist me, it was studying under difficulties, by observation only ; 



but the eye and the ear are great teachers, and memory is a great 



storehouse in which are laid up things new and old, which may be 



drawn out for use in after years. It is a book, the leaves of which can 



be turned over and read from childhood to old age. 



Having ex[)erienced the need of some familiar work, giving the 



information respecting the names and habits and the uses of the native 



plants, I early conceived the idea of turning the little knowledge, which 



I gleaned from time to time, to supplying a book which I had felt the 



want of myself ; but I hesitated to enter the field where all I had 



gathered had merely been from simply studying the subject without 



any regular systematic knowledge of botany. The only book that I 



had access to was an old edition of a " North American Flora," by 



that good and interesting botanist Frederick Pursh. This work was lent 



to me by a friend, the only person I knew who had paid any attention 



to botany as a study, and to whom I was deeply indebted for many 



hints and for the cheering interest that she always took in my writings, 



