PREFACE. Vll 



will be of great service as a guide in all efforts to increase the productiveness 

 of these sources of aliment. So a knowledge of the plants that serve for beauty 

 or use will make a man a better farmer, a happier and more useful citizen. 

 These considerations are so obvious that no labored argument should be neces- 

 sary to demonstrate the utility of volumes like this now presented to the 

 public, and the economy of the expenditure of the small sum which it has cost. 

 The avidity with which it will be sought by thousands of our citizens will soon 

 attest their high estimate of its value. 



For the care and accuracy with which the volume has been edited, credit is 

 to be given to Dr. J. M. Wheaton, who, in addition to the preparation of the 

 most voluminous report contained in it, assumed the onerous position of editor, 

 has read all the proof, and has decided all the difficult questions of typography. 

 For the mechanical execution of the book we are indebted to the courtesy and 

 cooperation of the Supervisor of Public Printing, Col. J. K. Brown, and to the 

 technical skill of the Public Printers, Messrs. Nevins & Myers. 



Of the other voluines contemplated in the original plan of publication of the 

 results of the Geological Survey, only the Second Part of Vol. Ill, on 

 Paleontology, and Vol. V, on Economic Geology, yet remain unpublished; but 

 the work has progressed slowly, since it has been done without aid from the 

 State. It would before this have been presented to the Legislature for publi- 

 cation, bnt the opinion has been expressed by the friends of the Geological 

 Survey that it was not at present wise to request appropriations for a volume 

 regarded by some as ornamental rather than useful, and that it should wait the 

 completion of the volume long half done, on Economic Geology. The delay 

 in the publication of this latter volume has been dependent upon a failure to 

 make the appropriation of the small sum necessary to finish the field work and 

 the maps that should accompany it. For this money was absolutely necessary, 

 and the sum of $5,000 was asked some years ago. During the last session the 

 Legislature appropriated the desired sum, placed the work in charge of Prof. 

 Orton, and it is in a fair way to^be completed. When that volume shall have 

 been issued it is to be hoped that measures will be taken to secure the publica- 

 tion of the two half volumes, one on Botany, etc. ; the other on Paleontology, 

 which will render the series symmetrical and complete. 



Enough has been said in regard to the Botanical and Entomological reports 

 to show their utility and the importance of having them published and distrib- 

 uted. This is not the place to advocate the completion of the reports on the 

 Paleontology of the State ; but it is permissible to say that the prejudice that 

 opposes the publication of figures and descriptions of the fossils contained in 

 our rocks is a narrow and unwise one. Aside from the wide-spread interest 

 felt in these extinct forms of animal and plant life, their practical value is un- 

 deniable and great. Every geologist knows that fossils constitute his most 



