PREFACE. 
Amone the happiest days of our childhood were those devoted to the 
study of Botany. Pure sunshine rests upon the memory of those rambles 
in the fields and woods, amid the opening flowers of Spring, and then in 
the gay profusion of advancing Summer, in which we made acquaintance 
with many a floral gem before unknown. We love to think of that wild 
woodland lake where first we saw the sparkling Sundew, the quaint 
Sarracenia, and the fair Nymphea, resting on the bosom of the waters; 
or of that lowly dell by the brookside, where the Yellow Violet, the 
Hepatica, and the Bloodroot bloomed; or of that craggy mountain, 
where, among the rocks, the Columbine hung out its scarlet flowers. 
Then returning home with our gathered treasures, how we entered with a 
will upon the work of Analysis, toiling for hours as no schoolmaster could 
have compelled us to do, being attracted to the task by the very love of it 
alone. Here, then, we have at least one department in learning whose 
earnest pursuit is so congenial to the affections and tastes of the mind as 
to be no irksome task, but a pastime,—a perpetual feast; and this not 
only to maturer minds, but to the season of early youth even in a higher 
degree, since then the objects of nature are especially invested with the 
charms of novelty. 
Let it not be said, however, that Botany attracts such willing votaries 
because it requires no labor, no persevering effort. No science is more 
intricate or profound. It cannot be understood except by vigorous and 
persevering effort. Consequently, in its successful pursuit there is disci- 
pline for the mind as well as for the body; and since the subject itself is 
replete with refinement and beauty, and fresh from the hand of God, its 
pursuit must also conduce to the invigoration of the moral nature. 
If, then, it be desirable to preoccupy the minds of our children with 
controlling ideas of purity, refinement, and moral beauty,—with exalted 
