PREFACE TO SERIES IL 



HEN the first series of "The Flowers and Ferns of the United 

 States" was issued, the hope was expressed that although that 

 work should be complete in itself, the public would welcome 

 another, or even successive series ; until, peradventure, the whole Flora 

 of the United States should be included. It is pleasant to the author to 

 know that part of this hope is realised, indeed all of the hope that can 

 be realised up to the present time. 



Not the least among the author's gratifications is the complimentary 

 manner in which the work has been received by his botanical associates. 

 It was a task rarely attempted, to bring exact botanical knowledge to a 

 level with popular comprehension, — to give it a place among a great 

 variety of the more cultivated branches of knowledge, — and, above all, to 

 accommodate such a work to the popular purse. That this could be 

 successfully accomplished the author had the courage to hope, but he 

 was scarcely prepared for the cordiality with which eminent men of 

 science have received this people's work as an acceptable contribution to 

 scientific literature. Amongst these the author has especially to make 

 his acknowledgments to Professor Asa Gray, who in "Silliman's Journal 

 of the Arts and Sciences" for May, 1879, compares the drawings not 

 unfavorably with those of Mr. Sprague, who for many years has been at 

 the head of botanical drawing in this country. Considering the very low 

 price at which this work is supplied, the fact that Professor Gray should 

 have been led to compare it with the best and most expensive botanical 

 work in our country, must be accepted as very high praise. 



We may now only say that while the publication of the work has been 

 transferred to the American Natural History Publishing Company, Lim- 

 ited, of Philadelphia, an association organized primarily for the purpose, 

 Messrs. Prang & Co.'s excellent artist, Mr. Alois Lunzer. will still make 



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