ro 



NEW YORK 



botanicaU 



OARDBN 



PREFACE 



TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



The taste for botanical studies which for many years has 

 prevailed in this quarter of the Union, may with some ti'uth 

 be said to have had its origin about the time of the publica- 

 tion of the first edition of this work. The principal use of a 

 local Flora is that it enables botanical inquirers to direct 

 their attention chiefly to the objects, with which they are 

 most likely to meet in their researches about home, and 

 saves them from the more extended labor of searching for 

 the names of these objects through the pages of genei'al 

 works. 



. Since the publication of the former editions of the Florula 

 Bostoniensis, much progress has been made in the knowledge 

 of the structure and relations of plants. A revolution ap- 



^C. pears to be taking place in regard more particularly to two 

 things. Firstly, the terminology of the science has been 



^ greatly extended by the introduction of more precise and 

 o definite terms to express the numerous forms of vegetable 



5y organic structure. This is rendered necessary by the vast 



additions, which are continually making, to the catalogue of 



known plants, to distinguish and describe which, language 



itself is often at fault. Secondly, a preference among bo- 



to tanical writers, greatly preponderates at the present day, 



*— in favor of the arrangement of plants by natural orders and 



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