INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 



times, made use of many of these plants to advan- 

 tage, though, with the settlement of the country a 

 return to the more familiar fruits and products of 

 civilization has naturally followed. Man 's tendency 

 to nurse a habit is nowhere more marked than in 

 his stubborn indisposition to take up with new 

 foods, if the first taste does not please, as frequently 

 it does not; witness the slowness with which the 

 tomato came into favor, and the Englishman's con- 

 tinued indifference to maize for human consumption. 



Sometimes, however, the claims of necessity over- 

 ride taste, and there would seem to be a service in 

 presenting in a succinct way the known facts about at 

 least the more readily utilized of our wild plants. 

 The data herein given, the writer owes in part to 

 the published statements of travelers and investi- 

 gators (to whom credit is given in the text), and in 

 part to his own first hand observations, particularly 

 in the West, where the Indian is not yet altogether 

 out of his blanket, and where some practices still 

 linger that antedate the white man's coming. The 

 essential worth of the plants discussed having been 

 proved by experience, it is hoped that to dwellers in 

 rural districts, to campers and vacationists in the 

 wild, as well as to nature students and naturalists 

 generally, the work may be practically suggestive. 



The reader is referred to the following standard 



