PREFACE. 
vii 
strictly scientific, the author would reply, that from the first it was only 
intended as a popular introduction to the science. No one department 
is considered as complete ; the botanical descriptions do not include all 
the plants of any one section of the country, but some of the most 
common indigenous and exotic plants of the various botanical districts 
of the United States; such, as it is supposed, teachers can easily pro- 
cure for analysis in their classes. Pupils going into the fields to col- 
lect plants should be provided with a Flora of the region in which 
they attempt to botanize* ; teachers for their own private use, should 
be furnished with some work containing descriptions of all the plants 
of the country, as Eaton’s Manual, Torrey’s Botany, &c. 
To the errors of the first edition, the public have been truly lenient ; 
and it is with regret that the author feels the necessity of asking for 
further indulgence ; she was called upon to prepare for this edition, at 
a time, when (the Principal of the Institution being in Europe) cares 
and duties, peculiarly complicated, had devolved upon her. A mere 
revision and correction of the first edition might have been easily ac- 
complished, but additions and improvements had suggested them- 
selves, which the author was unwilling to omit ; in pursuance of these 
views, it became necessary, to write the work in a gre&t measure 
anew — the copy furnished the printers was less legible than if the 
whole had been manuscript, as the pages not entirely rewritten were 
much confused with erasures and interpolations. The printing having 
been executed at a distance, the author had not the opportunity of 
correcting some errors, which had escaped observation, notwithstand- 
ing, great care taken in printing and proof-reading. 
The present edition, embracing as full a developement of the various 
departments of Botany as seems desirable in an elementary book, it 
is not probable any important alterations will hereafter be made in 
this work. 
Troy Female Seminary , April 25, 1831. 
* Professor Hitchcock’s “ Catalogue, of the Plants growing in the vicinity of 
Amherst College," furnishes nearly all the indigenous plants which may be 
found in the Northern part of the United States. This Catalogue is the fruit of 
twelve year’s examination of plants, made by the Professor, aided by several em- 
inent botanists. Those are truly the benefactors of science, who thus add to its 
stores the result of patient and laborious observations of nature, whilst the re- 
tail dealers of what their industry has collected, may be considered as filling a 
very subordinate, though, it may be, a useful station in this department of hu- 
man knowledge. 
