180 POPULAR FIELD BOTANY. 
that pleasure. Every walk will add fresh specimens to the 
herbarium, and a little steady devotion to the subject at first 
will save much uncertainty in the end. ven if the genus 
alone be discovered, much is done towards determining 
the plant, and the specific name will be known in time. In 
this little work, the specific distinctions are so simply 
described, that I hope if the one be discovered the other 
will soon follow. The time of flowering in plants must of 
course vary with the mildness or severity of the season, 
and many of those here mentioned may, in a backward 
spring, not be found till the commencement of next month, 
and in an early season some would be discovered in May. 
Therefore, if a plant be gathered which does not seem to 
be mentioned in its proper place, search must be made 
in the previous or following month. The class must be 
first decided before anything else is done, and then it 
will be easy to refer to the place in which it is likely to be 
described. 
A few difficulties must not discourage ; the more the study 
is cultivated, the sooner they will disappear. As the know- 
ledge widens the enjoyment increases; and, what is of no 
small moment, the study of these, perhaps the lowliest works 
of God, will teach us to look up with gratitude and admira- 
