


vi PREFACE, 
same sentimental fondness for them as has our little American 
friend. -A wildrose would never say to him: “ I despise you ;” 
nor does he expect a black-eyed Susan to blush from shyness. 
The wild flowers have their own unique personalities, They 
exist as individuals and reproduce themselves. Every plant is 
a member of a family and has its relatives quite as well as 
those of the animal world. To know them it is necessary that 
we should seek them in their homes: they seldom come to us. 
It is for this reason that a classification according to the soil 
in which they grow is feasible. It is a tangible point of which 
to take hold. And although there are some fickle-minded 
plants that appear to flourish in different kinds of soil, they 
may be regarded rather as those straying away from family 
tradition, than as trustworthy examples. As a rule they are 
partial to particular kinds of soil and do not thrive nearly so 
well in other than that allotted to them by Dame Nature. The 
marsh marigold, with which most of us are familiar, when it 
reaches the sunny, warmer south retires to the wet, cool woods 
in search of a soil similar to that of its home marshes. The 
harebell, that is with us a shy plant, hiding itself in shady 
places and rooting in moist soil, in England ventures out into 
the meadows and highways. It has there not our midsummer 
heat with which to contend and finds the soil of the fields not 
unlike that of our shaded banks, 
It would therefore seem that, putting aside an analysis of 
their minuter parts, the different species of plants could be 
most readily known by their locality. “With one exception the 
great family of golden-rods are yellow; but they do not all 
grow in the same kind of soil. The knowledge, therefore, that 
one inhabits a swamp will be of more value to identify it than 
to know its colour. For the convenience of those, however, 
that are accustomed to a classification by colour, an index, in 
which the plants are arranged under the dominant colour of the 
blossoms, has been provided. 
With the knowledge of this point and knowing also the soil 
