HOW TO USE THE BOOK 



MANY difficulties have been encountered in the arrangement 

 of this guide to the flowers. To be really useful such a guide 

 must be of moderate size, easily carried in the woods and fields ; 

 yet there are so many flowers, and there is so much to say about 

 them, that we have been obliged to control our selection and 

 descriptions by certain regulations which we hope will commend 

 themselves to the intelligence of our readers and secure their 

 indulgence should any special favorite be conspicuous by its 

 absence. 



These regulations may be formulated briefly as follows : 



1. Flowers so common as to be generally recognized are 

 omitted, unless some peculiarity or fact in their history entitles 

 them to special mention. 



2. Flowers so inconspicuous as generally to escape notice are 

 usually omitted. 



3. Rare flowers and escapes from gardens are usually omitted. 



4. Those flowers are chosen for illustration which seem en- 

 titled to prominence on account of their beauty, interest, or fre- 

 quent occurrence. 



5. Flowers which have less claim upojn the general public 

 than those chosen for illustration and full description, yet whiclf 

 are sufficiently common or conspicuous to arouse occasional curi- 

 osity, are necessarily dismissed with as brief a description as 

 seems compatible with their identification. 



In parts of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- 

 vania and in the vicinity of Washington, I have been enabled to 

 describe many of our wild flowers from personal observation ; 

 and I have endeavored to increase the usefulness of the book by 



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