PREFACE. 
A FEW words of introduction for our book on tlie Wild Flowers of Canada may 
- be deemed necessary by the friends who have so kindly and freely come forward 
as Subscribers to the work, and also the public in general. 
We present it with every hope that success may follow the publication, which 
has been delayed, by many unforeseen obstacles, from appearing at as early a date as 
had been anticipated. However, we must fall back upon the old saying—‘ Better late 
than never ’—and in excuse, observe that the labour of the undertaking has been very 
great. First, the designs—all the flowers having been copied from Nature’s Own 
Book, by Mrs. FitzGibbon— then the subsequent grouping and lithographing on 
stone by her own hand, and finally the colouring of each separate plate—a gigantic 
effort to be executed by one person. 
With a patriotic pride in her native land, Mrs. F. was desirous that the book 
should be entirely of Canadian production, without any foreign aid, and thus far her 
design has been carried out; whether successfully or not, remains for the public to 
decide. 
Any short-comings that may be noticed by our friends, must be excused on the 
score of the work being wholly Canadian in its execution. 
Our Canadian Publishers can hardly be expected to compete with the book¬ 
sellers and printers of the Old Country, or of the United States, labouring as they 
must necessarily do in a new country under many mechanical disadvantages. 
Thus far, then, in behalf of the artist and publisher—a few words remain yet 
to be said as regards the literary portion of the book. 
Many years ago the only work that treated in any way of the Wild Plants of 
Canada, the country owed to that indefatigable botanist, Frederick Pursh, whose 
valuable labours were but little appreciated in the country in which he toiled and 
died—it is to be feared but poorly rewarded during his life. 
The land, with all its rich vegetable resources, lay as it were an untrodden 
wilderness for many years, save by those hardy settlers who cared little for the forest 
flowers that grew in their paths. 
The unlettered Indians, indeed, culled a few of the herbs and barks and roots 
for healing purposes, and dyes wherewith to stain their squaws’ basket-work and 
porcupine quills ; and some of the old settlers had given them local and descriptive 
