o 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. x1 
ich a : rit of research will often 
which, in itself, is an nfeiling source of gratitiontion to ingenuous 
min aaa: not han aries leads to important practical results. 
The study of Bor in its widest sense—comprising, as it does, the 
entire Mi See an! att iow ill ever have its select vo teats es in those 
ho can appreciate its manifold charms, and find their reward in the 
leasures dent to this ‘puree : But when regarded in re limited. 
and practical point of view, it may fairly challenge the attention even 
of the most inveterate Utzlitarians. There are three aspects, or relations 
oF ie Science, in which its importance will scarcely be denied by the 
ost penuri urious calculator of economical values: name y, 1. Agricultural 
Botany, 2. Medical Botany,—and 3. Artistical pete or the history 
of those sf aoa which are employed, or afford materials, in the processes 
of oS rts and Manufactures. The Medical branch of the science has 
bee often reated of, with something like system, by the Professional 
Writers of Europe and America. The other two divisions less 
quently, and with less method, in various Agricultural Journals, Cyclo- 
. 
pedias, and Mercantile Dictionaries. The atte mpt here made is an essay 
on the ‘Agricultural bra —oras sano ees top of those Plants 
| atten useful and peicions) which m Oe aa Peowdiag 
‘armers—es i Magia n the Middle "States 0 this 
The Botany of the rts, Shicnever undertaken, will afford a highly in 
esting theme for it future laborer in this elegant department of Nat. 
In co Sepie this Farmer’s Flora, I found it somewhat difficult to 
aharinthe peeeweied the line of demarcation between the Plants 
entitled to a place in it, and those which ia properly be omitted. It 
pe a perhaps, be t o thought by some, that th unnecessarily — 
ile others may be . opinion that there are species left out which — 
ought to have been inserted. My aim has been,—not, certainly, to 
describe all the plants which an accomplished Agriculturist might very 
properly desire to know ; but—to ie those only (whether in 
Farmer would wi lingly be ‘niorate. n he 
self familiar these, he can extend iis nafs with the Vege- 
table Tribes, at pleasure, by having recourse to 1 and com- 
rehensive works ; such, for example, as the Flora of North America, 
; of North Amer: 
ocd Torrey and Gray,—or Prof. De Canpotte’s Prodromus of a Nat- 
ed pare comprising all the known forms of vegetation upon this 
obe. 
sunicenien 
In my humble pinion, no Education can be deemed sufficient without ou 
me acquaintance with the r 
rational know! 
edge just as > t 
