Introductory 



When we learn to call the flowers by 

 name we take the first step toward a real 

 intimacy with them. An eager sports- 

 man who had always noticed and won- 

 dered about the plants which he met on 

 every fishing expedition, wrote to me a 

 few weeks since that hitherto he had felt 

 toward them as the charity-boy did about 

 the alphabet, ' i he knew the little beg- 

 gars by sight, but he couldn't tell their 

 names ! " And it has seemed as though 

 a series of papers describing the different 

 flowers to be found in the woods and 

 fields, and by the roadsides, during the 

 months designated in their titles, might 

 not only be helpful to those who care to 

 "tell their names/' but might increase 

 the actual number of plants discovered, 

 as one is far more likely to be successful 

 in his search if he has a definite concep- 

 tion of what he can reasonably hope to 

 find. 



12 



