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PREFACE. 



IN this little book a very large number of the commoner 

 wild flowers growing in the United States, west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, are pictured and described. It is the 

 first attempt to supply a popular field book for the whole 

 West. The field is vast, including within its limits all sorts 

 of climate and soil, producing thousands of flowers, infinite 

 in variety and wonderful in beauty, their environment 

 often as different as that of Heine's Pine and Palm. In 

 such strange homes as the Grand Canyon and the Petrified 

 Forest of Arizona, or the deserts of Utah and southern 

 California, we find the oddest desert plants, forced to cu- 

 rious expedients in order to sustain life amidst almost per- 

 petual heat and drought, but often displaying blossoms of 

 such brilliance and delicacy that they might well be envied 

 by their more fortunate sisters, flourishing beside shady 

 waterfalls, in a "happy valley" like Yosemite, or a splen- 

 did mountain garden, such as spreads in many-colored 

 parterres of bloom around the feet of Mt. Rainier. On the 

 wind-swept plains hundreds of flowers are to be found; 

 many kinds of hardy plants brighten the salty margins of 

 the sea cliffs, or bloom at the edge of the snow on rocky 

 mountain peaks, while quantities of humble, everyday 

 flowers border our country roadsides or tint the hills and 

 meadows with lavish color. 



The field includes the States of Washington, Oregon, 

 California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona and to de- 

 signate this whole field the term West is used in this 

 book. The term Northwest designates Washington, 

 Oregon, northern Idaho, and northern California, and 

 the term Southwest covers southern California and 

 Arizona. The flowers found only in the Rocky Mountains 

 are not included, and it may be noted here that exceedingly 

 few of the western flowers cross the Rockies and are found 

 in the East. 



in 



