EDITOR^S PREFACE. 



A new edition of Doct. Darlington's Agricultural Botany having been 

 called for, and as the author, at his advanced age, felt indisposed to as- 

 sume the labor of a revision, the work was placed in my hands to pre- 

 pare for the press, with the author's permission to make such changes 

 and additions as might seem desirable. Such alterations have been made 

 in the botanical arrangement, and names, as the advance of the science 

 required, and descriptions have been added of such plants, not included 

 in the former edition, as are generally known as weeds. Besides these, 

 I have noticed the common medicinal plants, and such of our native 

 shrubs as are worthy of cultivation, — those that are both ornamental 

 and easily obtained. These latter may not strictly come within the class 

 of " useful," but are introduced with the hope of inducing farmers to 

 render the exterior of their homes more attractive by surrounding them 

 with beautiful shrubbery, which, once planted, will be a permanent 

 source of gratification not only to the possessors, but to travelers who 

 pass them. The yards of our country dwellings generally present a for- 

 lorn appearauce, which the attempt often made to cultivate a few coarse 

 flowering plants, rather increases than removes. 



In the introduction of new plants, the plan of the original work lias 

 been conformed to, and the descriptions of these are taken from Darling- 

 ton's Flora Cestrica, when that work contained them ; in other cases, 

 those in Torrey's Flora of the State of New York, and Gray's Manual 

 of the Botany of the Northern States have been used. 



1 am exceedingly indebted to Prof. Gray for permission to use his 

 Analytical Key to the Natural Orders, and have modified it, as well as 

 some of his Synopses of Orders and Genera, to suit the present work. 

 Doct. C.W. Short, of Kentucky, has kindly furnished notes on some of 



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