This book is included in the Outdoor Survival Basics section.
Preface
This book is intended to furnish botanical classes and "beginners
generally with an easier introduction to the plants of this country
than is the Manual, and one which includes the common cultivated
as well as the native species. It is made more concise and simple,
1. by the use of somewhat less technical language ; 2. by the omission,
as far as possible, of the more recondite and, for the present
purpose, less essential characters ; and also of most of the obscure,
insignificant, or rare plants which students will not be apt to meet
with or to examine, or which are quite too difficult for beginners ;
such as the Sedges, most Grasses, and the crowd of Golden Rods,
Asters, Sunflowers, and the' like, which require very critical study.
On the other hand, this small volume is more comprehensive than
the Manual, since it comprises the common herbs, shrubs, and trees
of the Southern as well as the Northern and Middle States, and all
which are commonly cultivated or planted, for ornament or use, in
fields, gardens, pleasure-grounds, or in house-culture, including even
the conservatory plants ordinarily met with.
It is very desirable that students should be able to use exotic as
well as indigenous plants in analysis ; and a scientific acquaintance
with the plants and flowers most common around us in garden, field,
and green-house, and which so largely contribute to our well-being
and enjoyment, would seem to be no less important than in the case
of our native plants. If it is worth while so largely to assemble
around us ornamental and useful trees, plants, and flowers, it is certainly
well to know what they are and what they are like. To students
in agricultural schools and colleges this kind of knowledge
will be especially important.
One of the main objects of this book is to provide cultivators,
gardeners, and amateurs, and all who are fond of plants and flowers,
with a simple guide to a knowledge of their botanical names and
structure. There is, I believe, no sufficient work of this kind in
the English language, adapted to our needs, and available even to
our botanists and botanical teachers, for whom the only recourse is
to a botanical library beyond the reach and means of most of these,
and certainly quite beyond the reach of those whose needs I have
here endeavored to supply, so far as I could, in this small volume.
The great difficulties of the undertaking have been to keep the book
within the proper compass, by a rigid exclusion of all extraneous
and unnecessary matter, and to determine what plants, both native
and exotic, are common enough to demand a place in it, or so
uncommon that they may be omitted. It is very unlikely that I can
have chosen wisely in all cases and for all parts of the country,
and in view of the different requirements of botanical students on
the one hand and of practical cultivators on the other, the latter
commonly caring more for made varieties, races, and crosses, than
for specie^, which are the main objects of botanical study. But I
have here brought together, within less than 350 pages, brief and
plain botanical descriptions or notices of 2,650 species, belonging to
947 genera ; and have constructed keys to the natural families,
and analyses of their contents, which I hope may enable students, who
have well studied the First Lessons, to find out the name, main characters,
and place of any of them which they will patiently examine
in blossom and, when practicable, in fruit also. If the book answers
its purpose reasonably well, its shortcomings as regards cultivated
plants may be made up hereafter. As to the native plants
omitted, they are to be found, and may best be studied, in the Manual
of the Botany of the Northern United States, and in Chapman's
Flora of the Southern United States.
This book is designed to be the companion of the First Lessons in
Botany, which serves as grammar and dictionary ; and the two may
be bound together into one compact volume, forming a comprehensive
School Botany.
For the account of the Ferns and the allied families of Cryptogamous
Plants I have to record my indebtedness to Professor D. C.
Eaton of Yale College. These beautiful plants are now much cultivated
by amateurs ; and the means here so fully provided for
studying them will doubtless be appreciated.
Harvard University Herbarium
Cambridge, Mass., August 29, 1868.
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