6 
INTRODUCTION* 
our modern Improvers will be along with mine 
properly valued in due time — There is a ten- 
dency to resist improvements and neglect facts 
for awhile by the old schools of science, which 
are afterwards taken hold of by more liberal and 
enlightened teachers or pupils. 
Therefore my own Flora and that of Torrey 
will not interfere in the least, but be supplemen- 
tal to each other ; while his labor will proba- 
bly save me the trouble of writing many Mo- 
nographs, or verifying many synonyms and quo- 
tations, When his Flora will be concluded, I 
shall have merely to publish my additions to it, 
in order to complete our real General Floha, 
of all the plants actualy known to me or others. 
It is well known that notwithstanding the 
greatest industry and exertions, it is not possi- 
ble for any botanist (or even a set of them) to 
collect or see all the plants of a vast region like 
our own: therefore there are many plants known 
only to myself or a few others ; and if besides 
they are short sighted, or lack the botanical sa- 
gacity of ascertaining generic and specific char- 
acters, it may happen that they will overlook 
many such, even when met with in the woods 
or in herbals. 
As I think that I am gifted with a peculiar 
sharp sagacity in discriminating Genera and 
Species of Plants and Animals, it behoves me 
to use it in order to rectify these objects and 
the sciences relating thereto.— It is what I have 
often done, am now doing, and will continue to 
do as long as I live, not being prevented by the 
sneer or neglect or any one. whom I consider 
less sagacious than myself, who cannot discri- 
minate between the most conspicuous charac- 
ters blended by the Linneists or modern Blen- 
ders and Shufflers. 
