PREFACE 



t 



The manuscript for this publication was prepared by Dr. Mary 

 Sophie Young from material of two sources: her own collections 

 and those placed in the herbarium by various other botanists who 

 preceded her at the University of Texas. It embodies, with very 

 few exceptions, only those species whose identity she considered un 

 questionable, leaving out numerous other species which she con- 

 sidered doubtfully placed or perhaps undescribed. While a majority 

 of the species to be found in the vicinity of Austin are certainly in- 

 cluded, this work is not to be expected to include them all. It rep- 

 resents six years of as intensive collection as was possible for an 

 enthusiastic, enegetic, and thoroughly capable person who was doing 

 at the same time a full share of teaching work. Very few, if any, 

 specimens found in the herbarium when she began were not verified 

 or corrected by her own collections. But to obtain what would justly 

 be termed a complete representation of practically all the species to 

 be found in the Austin region will require many years of intensive 

 collection on the part of a corps of workers whose full time shall be 

 devoted to this work alone. Nevertheless, this bulletin does con- 

 stitute^ an invaluable foundation upon which subsequent workers may 

 build with comparative ease. With exceptional skill Dr. Young 

 has in it not only blazed a trail; she has actually buil.ded a highway. 



The manuscript was complete except the preface at the time of her 

 death, March 5, 1919. It is here offered without amendments other 

 than the insertion of a few descriptions where she had indicated her 

 purpose to put them. Planned tc supplement her Key to the Families 

 and Genera of the Wild Plants of Austin, Texas, it should be used 

 in conjunction with that work. The two together should bring the 

 identification of the commoner plants of central Texas within the 

 power of any person who is reasonably intelligent and who is willing 

 to devote a little time to familiarizing himself with a few technical 

 terms which are essential to brevity and clearness in description. 



With certainty that it constitutes a valuable contribution to the 

 science of systematic botany, and with confidence that it will fill a 

 need expressed by frequent letters of request for reference to "some 

 work that will enable one to know the wild flowers of Texas," thus 

 stimulating interest in a study of systematic botany on the part of 

 lay students over the state, this posthumous publication is offered 

 the Texas public. 



B. C. Tharp. 

 Nov. 8, 1920. Department of Botany, University of Texas. 



