PREFACE TO: SERIES I, 
HEN the first series of “The Flowers and Ferns of the United 
States” was issued, the hope was expressed that although that 
work should be complete in itself, the public would welcome 
another, or even successive series; unvil, peradventure, the whole Flora 
of the United States should be included. It is pleasant to the author to 
know that part of this hope is realised, indeed all of the hope that can 
be realised up to the present time. 
Not the least among the author's gratifications is the complimentary 
manner in which the work has been received by his botanical associates. 
It was a task rarely attempted, to bring exact botanical knowledge toa 
level with popular comprehension,—to give it a place among a great 
variety of the more cultivated branches of knowledge,—and, above all, to 
accommodate such a work to the popular purse. That this could be 
successfully accomplished the author had the courage to hope, but he 
was scarcely prepared for the cordiality with which eminent men of 
science have received this people’s work as an acceptable contribution to 
scientific literature. Amongst these the author has especially to make 
his acknowledgments to Professor Asa Gray, who in “Silliman’s Journal 
of the Arts and Sciences” for May, 1879, compares the drawings not 
unfavorably with those of Mr. Sprague, who for many years has been at 
the head of botanical drawing in this country. Considering the very low 
price at which this work is supplied, the fact that Professor Gray should 
have been led to compare it with the best and most expensive botanical 
work in our country, must be accepted as very high praise. 
We may now only say that while the publication of the work has been 
transferred to the American Natural History Publishing Company, Lim- 
ited, of Philadelphia, an association organized primarily for the purpose, 
Messrs. Prang & Co.’s excellent artist, Mr. Alois Lunzer, will still make 
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