TBJ!! PRWSUBVING OF PLANTS 443 



authority. Britton and Brown's new "illustrated Flora," in three 

 volumes and with an illustration of every species, covers essentially 

 the same territory as the manual, with the addition of the British 

 Possessions as far north as Newfoundland. Macoun's "Catalogue of 

 Canadian Plants," in several parts, and published by the Geologi- 

 cal and Natural History Survey of Canada, may be consulted for 

 the British Possessions. For the southern states east of the Mis- 

 sissippi, the third edition of Chapman's "Flora of the Southern 

 States " is the standard reference. For the territory west of the 

 Mississippi there is no single manual. The floras covering parts of 

 this region are: Coulter's " Manual of the Botany of the Eoeky 

 Mountain Eegion," and "Flora of Western Texas," the latter pub- 

 lished by the United States Department of Agriculture; Greene's 

 "Manual of the Botany of the Eegion of San Francisco Bay," for 

 central California; Howell's "Flora of Northwest America," for 

 Oregon, Washington and Idaho. For the common wild and culti- 

 vated plants of the United States east of the Mississippi, the 

 revision of Gray's "Field, Forest and Garden Botany" should be 

 consulted. Books of a more popular nature may often be used by 

 teacher or pupils, as Mrs. Dana's "How to Know the Wild Flow- 

 ers," Mathews' "Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden," W. W. 

 Bailey's "Among Ehode Island Wild Flowers," Baldwin's "Orchids 

 of New England," Newhall's books upon "Trees," "Shrubs," and 

 "Vines," Knobel's Guides ("Trees and Shrubs," "Ferns and Ever- 

 greens" of New England), and others. There are many excellent 

 local floras, — books devoted to the plants of a state, county, or 

 small circumscribed geographical area. Other systematic books are 

 mentioned in paragraphs 263a, 428a, 433a; Suggestions, p. 289. 



Suggestions.— The collecting of natural objects is one of the de- 

 lights of youth. Its interest lies not only in the securing of the objects 

 themselves, but it appeals to the desire for adventure and exploration. 

 Botanizing should be encouraged; yet there are cautions to be observed. 

 The herbarium should be a means, not an end. To have collected and 

 mounted a hundred plants is no merit ; but to have collected ten plants 

 which represent some theme or problem is eminently useful. Schools 

 usually require that the pupils make an herbarium of a given number of 

 specimens, but this is scarcely worth the effort. Let the teacher set each 

 collector a problem. One pupil may make an herbarium representing all 

 the plants of a given swale, or fence-row, or garden; another may en- 



