INTRODUCTION vu 



Station to a friend's house, forty-one different flowers were 

 gathered. 



This book is designed to enable any one to identify any 

 flower by its habitat, its usual place of growth. The only 

 botanical knowledge required is that contained in the glossary 

 at the end of the book. Even to those who are accustomed 

 to botanical study, it is hoped that old truths in new dress 

 may not be unwelcome. 



Flowering plants of the Atlantic seaboard. New England, 

 the Middle States, as far south as Florida, are described. It 

 is interesting to note the wide latitudinal range of some 

 plants along the entire Atlantic coast. As the climate grows 

 warmer the flowers ascend to the mountains of the Southern 

 States, and New England vegetation reappears two thousand 

 feet high in Virginia. 



The first six chapters of this book group flowers usually 

 found on (I.) Banks of Streams ; (II.) in Swamps ; (III.) near 

 tile Seacoast ; (IV.) in Water ; (V.) in Low Meadows ; (VI.) 

 along Waysides and in Dry Fields. Chapter VII. includes 

 Weeds. Chapter VIII. brings together plants which origi- 

 nally were cultivated and, escaping from gardens, have be- 

 come wild. Chapter IX. describes those found in Rocky, 

 Wooded Hillsides ; X., those in Open, Dry Woods ; XI., 

 those of Deep, Cool, Moist Woods. Plants found every- 

 where in Sandy and Sterile Soil form Chapter XII. Vines 

 compose the Xlllth, Shrubs the XlVth chapters. 



Because it was necessary to adopt some method, the order 

 of families and genera as given in Grays Manual of Botany 

 (edition i8go) has been followed. This is not, however, the 

 natural order, which by the law of evolution or progressive 

 development places the simplest first, the most complex last. 

 Thus monocotyledones, such as lilies and orchids, should be- 

 gin the list ; the simplest forms of dicotyledones, like the 

 lizard's-tail, which is destitute of calyx and corolla, coming 



