How much easier it is to appreciate the Good, the 
Beautiful and the True about us, when we have 
some knowledge — be it ever so small -- of plant-life and 
its innumerable and beautiful forms. 
This little volume is designed as an aid in a prelimi- 
nary determination of a limited group of plants, indigi- 
nous to Maryland and Virginia. The works cited in con- 
nection with the species are the most recent accessible 
books on our flora : these should be consulted in critical 
determinations, as should also the various botanical jour- 
nals, published in the Eastern United States. 
Witii the exception, perhaps, of two or three species, 
these notes are primarily the result of field-studies more 
or less interrupted since 1896. The material in the U. S. 
National Herbarium has been consulted in order to in- 
clude all known localities for the rare species. 
1 am indebted to Mr. F. J. Tyler for the photographs 
and indirectly to all my co-vs^orkers, whose names ap- 
pear in connection with the rarer species. 
WasJiingtofi. D. C. 
Ivar Tidestrom, 
