PREFACE 



INCREASING interest in the wild flowers has led to a 

 very general desire to recognize them, even on the part 

 of those who undertake no systematic study of botany. 

 This interest is furthered by the numerous excellent 

 popular works which in their turn encourage the study 

 of the standard authorities. 



In these books the recognition of the individual 

 specimen is facilitated, it is true, by the arrangement 

 according to families, as in the works of Matthews 

 and of Weed; by that according to soil, as in those 

 of Creevey and Lounsberry; and still more, for the 

 uninitiated, by that according to color, first intro- 

 duced, I think, in Dana's "How to Know the Wild 

 Flowers" and used also by Blanchan, by Reed, and 

 to a certain extent by Lounsberry. The arrangement 

 according to time of bloom, used by some of these 

 authors, is also of material assistance. Even with these 

 aids, however, the search is often prolonged and baffling 

 to one who has not mastered botanical analysis; and 

 time may well be saved in the identification of a flower, 

 to be advantageously spent upon these books in the 

 study of its habits and history, its method of fertiliza- 

 tion, and its place in verse and prose. 



The Guide has been prepared with this need in view. 

 The plan adopted will render it comparatively easy for 

 the learner, the amateur, or any person of ordinary in- 

 telligence to identify a large number of the common 

 wild flowers and fruits, especially those of definite color 

 and other marked characteristics. 



To this end charts for each color have been so 

 arranged that a given specimen may be traced, through 



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