Opening Leaves 



one point of view, and the mere wandering nature-lover 

 from quite another ; and for the latter, the method that 

 makes brothers (or at least cousins) of the great laurel 

 and the lowly pipsissewa, of the frail little bunch-berry 

 and the great sour-gum-tree, is certainly not a service- 

 able one. Science represents the ripest thought of the 

 world's most patient and gifted thinkers, and its 

 methods are never to be spoken lightly of^but it is 

 fearfully dogmatic; too much so, considering its ex- 

 treme agility (acquired through long practice) in chang- 

 ing its attitude to square with new and victorious truths 

 which it could not overthrow. Evolution, of the most 

 ultra sort, is one of these winning truths, to which the 

 scientific world is fast surrendering. 



No previous knowledge of botany is here presumed 

 upon. The descriptions, to which one is referred in 

 the Key, contain few technical terms, and these, if not 

 self-evident, are fully explained and illustrated. Only 

 the obvious features of leaf and blossom needful for 

 identification, and requiring no microscope, are pre- 

 sented. By this condensation all native and natural- 

 ized trees, shrubs, and vines found in the prescribed 

 territory are described in about a hundred pages. 



The area covered by the work — as regards oui 

 native plants — is the Northeastern United States — from 

 Maine to Virginia (inclusive), and west to the Missis- 

 sippi — whose flora contains, approximately, 170 species 

 of trees, 197 of shrubs, and 127 of vines. Supple- 

 mental to this is a similar description of the foreign 



15 



