PREFACE. 



This little work on the Flowers and Nativk J'i.anis of Western 

 Canada is offered to the Canadian public with the ho])e that it may 

 prove a means of awakening a love for the natural productions of the 

 country, and a desire to acquire more knowledge of its resources. It is 

 not a book for the learned. The aim of the writer is simply to show 

 the real pleasure that may be obtained from a habit of observing what 

 is offered to the eye of the traveller, — whether by the wavside path^ 

 among the trees of the forest, in the fields, or on the shores of lake 

 and river. Even to know the common name of a flower or fern is 

 something added to our stock of knowledge, and inclines us to wish to 

 know something beyond the mere name. Curiosity is awakened, and 

 from this first step we go on to seek for higher knowledge, which may 

 be found in works of a class far above what the writer of the present 

 book can aspire to offer to the reader. The writer has adopted a 

 familiar style in her descriptions of the plants, thinking it might prove 

 more useful and interesting to the general reader, especially to the 

 young, and thus find a place on the book-shelves of many who would 

 only regard it for the sake of its being a pretty, attractive volume, on 

 account of the illustrations. These, indeed, are contril)uted by the 

 pencil of a gifted and accomplished lady, Mrs. Agnes Chamderun, a 

 beloved relative, to whose artistic taste and talents the authoress is 

 greatly indebted. She is conscious that many imperfections will be 

 found in this volume, the contents of which have been written at 

 intervals during a long series of years, many of which were marked by 

 trials, such as fell to the lot of the early colonist and backwoods settlers, 

 and others of a more afflicting nature, which required patience and faith 

 to bear, and to say " Thy Will be done, O Lord." 



