PREFACE 
The purpose of this book is to furnish a practically complete 
handbook containing descriptions of the native flowering plants of 
the Northeastern United States, including not only the showy 
herbs but also the trees, shrubs and weeds growing native in that 
region and to adapt the work to the convenience and assistance of 
the very large and ever growing class of educated people who are 
interested in the study of this most attractive branch of natural 
history but who, by reason of unfamiliarity with the technical 
terms which have been in universal use for handbooks of botany, 
have absolutely no adequate aid in the prosecution of an agreeable 
and refining pursuit. While aiming to render the work available 
to the non-technical student, the arrangements and descriptions 
are intended to conform to the requirements of the technical bot- 
anist to the extent of furnishing a convenient handbook. 
That there is a distinct and urgent demand for such a work is 
recognized not only by the cultured general public but also by pro- 
fessional botanists. 
In reply to the question recently published in a botanical jour- 
nal, “ Why does not the subject of botany more often create a last- 
ing interest?” a distinguished professor in one of our great uni- 
versities replies: “ All our botanical courses and our text books 
are too technical . . . they are written by technical 
botanists who have forgotten that they were ever young them- 
selves.” 
The classification adopted in this work is, in the main, that of 
Professor Adolph Engler in his Sillabus der Pflanzenfamilien, con- 
» ceded to be the latest. and highest authority on this subject, yet, in 
8 a few instances in the interest of a more simplified arrangement, 
© I have followed the classification of Professor Eichler. 
€ 
By introducing the modern Orders as well as the Families of 
Splants I have hoped to familiarize the student with their natural 
G ‘relations, thus furnishing the observing beginner something of in- 
2 
es 
“finitely greater value than the empty knowledge of the names of a 
? B iew plants. By thus giving a correct impression of the developmen- 
~~ tal or evolutionary relations between the different species, the be- 
“ ginner is soon prepared to recognize as an acquaintance and friend 
‘ 
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