PREFACE. 



THE purpose of this volume is to assist a very large and 

 increasing class of persons who possess a strong love of 

 flowers, but to whom the ordinary " Floras " indispensable as 

 they are to the scientific botanist are as books written in an 

 unknown tongue. With the enormous increase of our town 

 populations, and the greater facilities for home travel, there 

 has grown up a truer appreciation of the country and of all 

 that is beautiful in nature ; and it is hoped that this work may 

 be of service to those who thus steal back to the arms of their 

 Mother, but have not time or inclination to spell out and pain- 

 fully translate the carefully-made terms of the exact descrip- 

 tions which learned men have written for the use of the 

 scientific student. Such terms are absolutely necessary, for 

 the things they describe were unknown to our Celtic and 

 Saxon forefathers, who would otherwise have left us names for 

 them which would now be familiar words to all. In a work 

 like the present such words could not be entirely avoided, but 

 they have been used sparingly, and in a manner that will not 

 involve continual reference to a dictionary of scientific terms. 



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