PREFACE 



There has long been needed a book describing the more 

 important weeds of the United States, although there are 

 numerous publications of the United States government 

 and state experiment stations that treat of the more im- 

 portant weeds of the United States and Canada and their 

 eradication. The demand for publications of this kind 

 is so great that the editions soon become exhausted. 



This work on weeds is here presented to bring some of 

 the more important phases of the subject together in one 

 treatise. Comparatively few books on this subject have 

 been published in America. The treatise by Fletcher 

 and Clark, and a second edition revised by Clark, treat 

 the subject admirably. The work of Darlington and 

 Thurber, " American Weeds and Useful Plants." found 

 a welcome place in the botanists' library. The little 

 book by Prof. Thomas Shaw also filled a most useful 

 place in the agricultural literature of this country. 



The weeds described in the present manual by no 

 means cover all that are injurious, and we have de- 

 scribed many more from eastern North America than 

 from the Pacific coast or the southern states. In a work 

 of limited scope it has been impossible to include more 

 than a fraction of the weeds of the country. Those who are 

 interested in a further study of the plants should provide 

 themselves with such admirable manuals as the seventh 

 Revised Edition of Gray's Manual by Robinson and Fer- 

 nald, Nelson and Coulter's New Manual of Rocky Moun- 



