VI 



PREFACE. 



been desired by the publishers of the latter work to prepare 

 an enlarged edition for the press. The nature of my occu- 

 pations, however, has prevented me from giving the requisite 

 attention to this object, until the present period. Perhaps 

 the value of the work will not be diminished by this delay. 



The second edition contains about twice the number of 

 plants which were included in the first. Many of the former 

 descriptions have been enlarged or amended from reexami- 

 nations of living plants, and many have been written out 

 anew. Although the work more immediately applies to 

 Boston and its environs, yet I have inserted in this edition 

 all such plants as I have formei-ly collected and described 

 in any part of the New England states. 



I have in general preferred to retain the older names of 

 genera, especially such as were in the first edition of this 

 work, introducing as subgenei-a the divisions of later bota- 

 nists, together with some others, to ^vhich future distributors 

 will, no doubt, give names. It is vain to attempt keeping 

 pace with the continually shifting nomenclature of plants ; 

 and it may justly be questioned whether the benefit which 

 results from making generic distinctions more precise, is not 

 more than counterbalanced by the load of synonyms which 

 it brings with it, and the discouraging necessity which it im- 

 poses on students of the science, to unlearn continually 

 what they have acquired. 



The field of vegetation, which has already been explored, 

 is so vast, that an universal botanist is a character now un- 

 known. The most useful and satisfactoiy pursuit of the sci- 

 ence, for persons with common advantages, will be found in 

 attention to the native plants of a limited district. Even the 

 Flora of the United States is now too extensive to come easily 

 withm the grasp of an individual ; and that of any consider- 

 able section of our territory may furnish full occupation for 

 yeai-s. 



Boston, June, 1824. 



