IV INTRODUCTION 



if we may be allowed the expression, the " American Flora " is a 

 Biography of Nature, and that too of her most lovely works ; and 

 the faithfulness of its records may be relied upon. It describes 

 minutely the peculiarities of the several classes, and their method 

 of propagation ; it unfolds their beauties in the spring and summer 

 of their lives, their grandeur and magnificence in maturity, and 

 their innumerable capabilities of rendering pleasure, gratification, 

 and service to man. It is a work classic in its conception, pleasing 

 and instructive in detail, and scientific in conclusion. The accura- 

 cy of the drawings, and their brilliant and perfect coloring, is one of 

 its chief ornaments, — they place the reader at once in possession 

 of the subject of his interesting enquiry. Its descriptive matter is 

 plain and simple, disencumbered of all useless and unintelligible 

 matter, but clear and explicit — intended, without the intense labor 

 required on more elaborate works, to imprint on the memory an 

 impression as perfect, but of much easier and more lasting reten- 

 tion. From the practical knowledge and experience of the Author, 

 its pharmacological observations are both extensive and important, 

 and its medicinal information will insure its claim as a valuable 

 acquisition to the library of the practitioner. It is a work of much 

 care and research, where the very spirit of botanical science is ex- 

 tracted from its countless integral, like the essential oils by distilla- 

 tion from the sweet-scented leaves of the Rose or the Jassamine. 

 It is no ephemeral of a passing day, as we have seen some, shining 

 with a borrowed lustre from a sun that never intended to gild and 

 brighten their leaves, but which have faded when his influence was 

 withdrawn, and withered in the absence of his light. 



