PREFACE 



country, endeared to them by the remembrance of the wild 

 flowers which they plucked in the happy days of childhood. 



As civilization extends through the Dominion and the cul- 

 tivation of the tracts of forest land and prairie destroys the 

 native trees and the plants that are sheltered by them, many 

 of our beautiful wild flowers, shrubs and ferns will, in the 

 course of time, disappear from the face of the earth and be 

 forgotten. It seems a pity that no record of their beauties 

 and uses should be preserved; and as there is no national 

 botanical garden in Canada where collections of the most 

 remarkable of our native plants might be cultivated and 

 rescued from oblivion, any addition to the natural history of 

 the country that supplies this want is therefore not without 

 its value to the literature and advancement of the country, 

 and it is hoped that it may prove valuable to the incoming 

 immigrant who makes Canada an abiding home. 



The author takes this opportunity of acknowledging the 

 kind and invaluable assistance which she has received from 

 her friend, Mr. James Fletcher, of the Dominion Library, and 

 the encouragement to her labors by Professor Macoun's 

 opinion of the usefulness of her work on the vegetable pro- 

 ductions of the country. She has also to acknowledge the 

 benefit derived from the pamphlet on the " Canadian Forest 

 Trees," by her respected friend, Dr. Hurlburt. Mr. Fletcher, 

 with that zeal for his favorite study which has already won 

 for him so high a place among the naturalists of Canada, and 

 that kindness which shrinks from no trouble and has won 

 him so many friends, accepted the drudgery of revising the 

 work and seeing it through the press. 



IX 



