POPULAE FLORA, 



A CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF 



THE COMMON PLANTS OF THE COUNTRY, 



BOTH WILD AND CULTIVATED, UNDER THEIR 

 NATURAL ORDERS. 



A Flora is a botanical account of the plants of a country or district, with the 

 orders or families systematically arranged under the classes, the genera under the 

 orders, and the species (when there are more than one) under the genus they be- 

 long to, — along Avith the characters of each class, order, genus, &c. ; that is, an 

 enumeration of the principal and surest marks, or some of them, by which they are 

 to be distinguished. A full Flora of all the plants which grow in this country, 

 including those in common cultivation, would at the least fill a large volume ; and 

 would be both too expensive and too unwieldy for the young beginnei*. The 

 Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States (including Virginia and Ken- 

 tucky, and extending Avest to the Mississippi River) is a volume of over GOO pages, 

 or 700, including the Mosses. And this work does not include foreign plants culti- 

 vated in our fields or gardens, except those that have run wild in some places. 



The Popular Flora, which occupies the rest of this book, is for the use of 

 beginners, and is made as brief, simple, and easy as possible. For greater facility 

 in the study, it includes only the common wild plants of the country (especially of 

 the Northern States), and those ordinarily cultivated in our fields or gardens, for 

 use or ornament. The families or genera which are too difficult for young begin- 

 ners, such as Grasses, Sedges, the large family of plants with compound flowers 

 (the Sunflower Family), and the like, are altogether omitted or only briefly 



