PREFACE. 



In offering to the public, this volume of American Wild Flowers, 

 the author cannot but feel, that, while every apology ought to be made 

 for the imperfect manner in which she has executed her not unpleasant 

 task, no excuse is necessary for the subject she has chosen. Every 

 one hears of our towering mountains, our mighty rivers, our dense 

 forests, our ocean-like lakes and our boundless prairies. The grand 

 features of nature are so imposing that we forget the lesser beauties, 

 which amid gentler scenery would claim our chief interest ; and 

 therefore it is that the blossoms which fringe our rushing streams and 

 enamel our sunny vallies are rarely noted among the characteristics of 

 American scenery. Yet why should our wild flowers lack the poetic 

 association which lends such a charm to the " pied daisy," and the 

 " primrose pale ?" Why should the tiny blossom whose life is nurtured 

 by the spray of the mightiest of cataracts, and whose hues are 

 brightened by the circling rainbows which gird Niagara as with 

 a cestus of beauty, — why should it be less suggestive to the imagina- 

 tion than the ivy gathering over a ruined turret, or the wall-flower 

 nodding from a crumbling buttress ? 



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It is not pretended that the present work can do more than afford 

 a feeble idea of the wealth of our wood-land haunts. The flowers 

 here given, bear the smallest possible proportion to the many which 



