PREFACE 



This flora is a considerably enlarged revision of the one pre- 

 pared by the author in 1901. It does not profess to describe 

 all the conspicuous seed plants of any locality, but rather to 

 comprise a large number of the most available spring-bloom- 

 ing species over an extensive region. More than a hundred 

 species have been added to the list included in the older 

 edition, mainly of plants which range westward to the moder- 

 ately high plains. The little book may therefore afford a 

 good deal of practice in the determination of species to sec- 

 ondary-school pupils in states even as far west as the Dakotas, 

 Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. It extends south about to 

 the southern boundary, of Kansas on the west and to that of 

 Virginia on the east. 



In the matter of nomenclature it seems best for those who 

 do not wish to be hopelessly sectional to follow the rulings of 

 the Vienna Congress. The author deems himself fortunate to 

 have been able in this connection to avail himself of the deci- 

 sions of the staff of the Gray Herbarium, as embodied in the 

 seventh edition of Gray's Manual of Botany, and to get advice 

 from the same source in regard to names of cultivated plants 

 not described in the Manual. His most sincere thanks are 

 hereby tendered for this invaluable assistance. 



At the risk of sometimes seeming pedantic the writer has 

 adopted the practice of discarding, for the most i)art, sucli un- 

 scientific expressions as '' stemless plants," '' radical leaves," 

 " calyx adnate to the ovary," and several others. It is certain 

 that if the plant descriptions which contain such terms were 

 now being framed for the first time on the basis of present- 

 day morphology, these terms would not be used. 



Most of the plants here described bloom before the end of 

 the school year, and it is believed that all of those which occur 

 toward tlie southern limits of the territory covered will be 

 found to flower there considerably before the end of June. It 



