INTRODUCTION. xvii 



sistance. Summer schools and vacation classes seem to meet 

 a widespread want, and to take teachers and pupils away from 

 the densely populated cities is better than to bring living plants 

 and animals to them. Therefore a book that leads searchers 

 to know what they will find in the country is the best kind of a 

 book. 



Our thanks are due to Miss Lounsberry and Mrs. Rowan for 

 having contributed a work which cannot fail to advance Nature 

 Study in quite the way that it should be advanced. Mrs. Row- 

 an's figures have been drawn from plants growing in their nat- 

 ural surroundings and they are accurate and elegant. The 

 new process by which it has been made possible to reproduce 

 her coloured paintings is a most valuable addition to methods 

 of illustration. 



N. L. BRITTON. 



NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN, 

 February 20, 1899. 



