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Illustrated Flora of the Northern US, Canada
& the British Possessions, Vol. 1

By Nathaniel Lord Britton
720 pages 1913

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xx

INTRODUCTION
THE present work is the first complete Illustrated Flora published in this country. Its aim is to illustrate and describe
every species, from the Ferns upward, recognized as distinct by botanists and growing wild within the area 
adopted, and to complete the work within such moderate limits of size and cost as shall make it accessible to the 
public generally, so that it may serve as an independent handbook of our Northern Flora and as a work of general 
reference, or as an adjunct and supplement to the manuals of systematic botany in current use.

The first edition (6000 copies) was exhausted during the period from 1896 to 1909. The continued public demand 
for the work has induced the authors to prepare and publish a second edition, which has been materially revised 
and enlarged. About 300 pages have been added to the text and the number of species illustrated has been 
increased from 4162 to 4666, besides many others redrawn for improvement. This increase of about one-eighth
both in the text and in the number of plants figured is due in part to the more complete botanical exploration of the 
geographical area, in part to the more critical delimitation of species and in part to the introduction, in recent years, 
of additional alien species from the Old World and from the western and southern United States. Exploration and 
critical study have been greatly stimulated by the first edition, and much of the additional information now brought 
into the second edition was elicited by the use of the first, by students all over the country.

To all botanical students, a complete illustrated manual is of the greatest service; always useful, often 
indispensable. The doubts and difficulties that are apt to attend the best written descriptions will often be instantly 
solved by figures addressed to the eye. The greatest stimulus, moreover, to observation and study, is a clear and 
intelligible guide; and among the aids to botanical enquiry, a complete illustrated handbook is one of the chief.
Thousands of the lovers of plants, on the other hand, who are not botanists and are not familiar with botanical 
terms or the methods of botanical analysis, will find in the illustrations of a complete work the readiest means of 
comparison and identification of the plants that grow around them; and through the accompanying descriptions 
they will at the same time acquire a familiarity with botanical language. By these facilities, not only is the study of 
our native plants stimulated and widened among all classes, but the enjoyment, the knowledge and the scientific 
progress derivable from these studies are proportionately increased.

Though most European countries have complete illustrations of the flora of their own territory, no similar work has 
hitherto been attempted here. Our illustrated works, some of them of great value, have been either sumptuous and
costly monographs, accessible to comparatively few, or confined to special groups of plants, or have been works of 
a minor and miscellaneous character, embracing at most but a few hundred selected species, and from 
incompleteness, therefore, unsuited for general reference. Scarcely one-third of the species illustrated in the 
present work have ever been figured before. That no such general work has been previously attempted is to be 
ascribed partly, perhaps, to the imperfect exploration of our territory, and the insufficiency of the collections to 
enable such a work to be made approximately complete; partly to the great number of species required to be 
figured and the consequent difficulty and cost of the undertaking, and partly to the lack of any apparent demand 
for such a work sufficient to warrant the expense of the enterprise.

In the first edition, it was shown that many more species existed within the geographical area of the work than 
previous publications had recorded, and many collectors and students have, since its publication, been eager to 
detect and describe others. This enthusiasm for additional species had led, in some instances, to the descriptive 
publication as species, of a considerable number which appear to be not sufficiently different from plants already 
well known to warrant their recognition as distinct; some of these have been satisfactorily relegated to synonymy, 
while others have been recognized in this edition by brief notes in order to call attention to them and to indicate the
necessity for their further study, in order to ascertain their true status. Similar notes have been entered relative to a
few species of which the occurrence within the area has become known to the authors during the preparation and 
composition of the work, which has covered a period of nearly four years, a course which has been taken in order 
to supersede the need of an Appendix.

A few species illustrated in the first edition have been omitted, except by the entry of notes upon them, in the 
second, for reasons explained by such notes, mostly because they have been ascertained to be undistinguishable
specifically from others.

The enterprise, projected by Judge Brown, and maintained and supervised by him throughout, has been 
prosecuted for the past twenty-two years. Its execution has been mainly the work of Dr. Britton. The text, founded 
upon a careful examination of living or herbarium specimens, has been chiefly prepared by him, with the 
assistance, however, of specialists in a few groups who have contributed the descriptions for certain families as 
stated in the footnotes. The figures also have been drawn by artists under his immediate supervision; except those
of most of the grasses, drawn for the first edition by Mr. Holm, under the eye of Prof. Scribner, and those in the 
other families contributed by specialists who have supervised them; while the work in all its parts has been carefully
revised by both authors. The keys to the genera and species, based upon a few distinctive characters, will, it is 
believed, greatly facilitate the determinations.

In preparing a new work of this character, the authors have felt that there should be no hesitation in adopting the 
matured results of recent botanical studies here and in Europe, so as to bring the work fully abreast of the 
knowledge and scientific conceptions of the time, and make it answer present needs. Although this involves 
changes in systematic order, in nomenclature, and in the division of families and genera, such as may seem to 
some to be too radical, no doubt is entertained that time will fully justify these changes in the judgment of all, and 
demonstrate that the permanent advantages to Botanical Science will far outweigh any temporary inconveniences,
as has been already so fully shown in Ornithology and other zoological sciences.

The first edition was issued in three volumes, published consecutively in 1896, 1897 and 1898. The second edition
is issued in three volumes simultaneously published.

Area.
The area of the work extends from the Atlantic Ocean westward, in general, to the 102d Meridian, a little beyond 
that of Gray's Manual, so as to include the whole of the State of Kansas ; and northward from the parallel of the 
southern boundary of Virginia and Kentucky to the northern limits of Labrador and Manitoba. For convenience, the
whole of Nebraska has been included, thus permitting the illustration of practically the entire Flora of the northern 
portion of the Great Plains. Western North and South Dakota are not included.

The Flora of Canada and the British possessions not being distinguishable by any well marked features from that 
of the adjacent parts of the United States, and not embracing more than about 400 additional species, it was 
deemed best to include this more northern territory, in order to present a manual of the whole Flora of the 
northeastern part of the continent, with the exception of that of Greenland and the Arctic Circle, which is much the
same on both continents; nearly all the Arctic plants are, however, included, as but very few of them are strictly 
confined to the Arctic Zone.

Further botanical exploration will, doubtless, reveal additional species, especially along the southern and western 
boundaries, and in the north.

Figures.
Within the above area there are over 4600 recognized species, more than three times the number in Bentham's
Illustrated Handbook of the British Flora. To illustrate all these in a work of moderate size and cost, only parts of 
each plant could usually be figured, and these mostly below life-size. To exhibit full-page illustrations would have 
added fourfold to the bulk of the work, and the consequent more limited sales would have necessarily increased
the price in a much greater proportion, and thus have thwarted the primary objects, viz., to supply a work adapted 
to general circulation and use. On the other hand, it was found that any considerable further reduction of the 
figures in order to reduce the size of the work, would be at the sacrifice of the clearness and usefulness of the 
illustrations.

In the general plan adopted and in giving parts only of the larger plants, it has been the constant aim to make the 
reduction of each figure as little below life-size as possible, to select the most characteristic parts for illustration 
and to preserve the natural proportion. In these respects, it is believed, the present work will be found to be at 
least not inferior to that above named and often superior.

The cuts are all from original drawings for this work, ether from life or from herbarium specimens, though 
reference has constantly been ma.de to published plates and figures. All have been first drawn life-size from 
medium-sized specimens, and afterwards reduced to the proportion indicated by the fraction near the bottom of 
each cut, most of them being from 1/2 to 2/3 of medium life-size. By this method the illustrations do not suffer from 
the use of a magnifier, but are improved by it and retain their full expression.

The large number of additional figures in the second edition and the incorporation into the main text of the 
appendix to the first edition, have necessitated the renumbering of the figures consecutively.

Enlargements of special parts are added in most of the illustrations in order to show more clearly the floral 
structure, or minute organs, or the smaller flowers. These are in various degrees of enlargement, not deemed 
necessary to be stated. The figures are uncolored, because coloring, except in costly work, obscures the fineness
of linear definition and injures the cuts for descriptive and educational uses.

The Classification of Plants.
The Plant Kingdom is composed of four subkingdoms, divisions or primary groups :

	1. Thallophyta, the Algae, Fungi and Lichens.
	2. Bryophyta, the Mosses and Moss-allies.
	3. Pteridophyta, the Ferns and Fern-allies.
	4. Spermatophyta, the Seed-bearing plants.

Individuals are grouped, by similarity, into races; races into species; species into genera; genera into families; 
families into orders; orders into classes; classes into divisions or subkingdoms.

In addition to these main ranks, subordinate ones are sometimes employed, when closer grouping is desirable: 
thus a Class may be separated into Subclasses, as the Class Angiospermae into the Sublasses Monocotyledones 
and Dicotyledones; Families may be separated into Tribes, as in the treatment of Gramineae in the following 
pages; Genera are often separated into Subgenera; Species into Subspecies.

Critical field observations of plants in the wild state, supplemented by the cultivation side by side of species 
supposed to be distinct and by the lessons learned from experimental plant breeding, have developed the theory 
that many species, perhaps all, are composed of a greater or lesser number of races, differing from each other too
little to cause them to be regarded as species, notwithstanding the fact that they may breed true from seed to such
slight or trivial differentiations. It also seems to have been proved, by DeVries and others, that such differentiations
may originate abruptly from seed, in a single generation, and remain constant for at least several generations
thereafter if. so isolated from their relatives as to prevent cross-pollination. These recently ascertained phenomena
of mutation are most suggestive, and experimentation and observation concerning them are now occupying the 
attention of many students.

In the present edition of "Illustrated Flora," the view is taken that the races composing many species are often too
numerous and too slightly characterized to be described so as to be recognized; many of them have been 
described as species and many more as varieties, and varieties of different degrees of differentation have been 
suggested. We here regard species alone as entitled to distinct botanical appelation; it has been suggested that 
races may be indicated numerically.

Other than the omission of descriptions of varieties, the general system of classification used in the first edition has
been maintained in the second. A few new family groups and a number of genera have been separated or 
distinguished from their congeners.

The grouping of Races into Species, of Species into Genera, and of Genera into Families, though based upon 
natural characters and relationships, is not governed by any definite rule that can be drawn from nature for 
determining just what characters shall be sufficient to constitute a Species, a Genus or a Family. These groups are,
therefore, necessarily more or less arbitrary and depend upon the judgment of scientific experts, in which natural 
characters and affinities, as the most important and fundamental factors, do not necessarily exclude considerations
of scientific convenience. The practice among the most approved authors has accordingly been various. Some 
have made the number of genera and families as few as possible. This results in associating under one name 
species or genera that present marked differences among themselves. The present tendency of expert opinion is 
to separate more freely into convenient natural groups, according to similarity of structure, habit, form or 
appearance. While this somewhat increases the number of these divisions, it has the distinct advantage of 
decreasing the size of the groups, and thus materially facilitates their study. This view has been taken in the
present work, following in most instances, but not in all, the arrangement adopted by Engler and Prantl in their 
great work, "Naturliche Pflanzenfamilien," in which nearly all known genera are described.

Systematic Arrangement.
The Nineteenth Century closed with the almost unanimous scientific judgment that the order of nature is an order 
of evolution and development from the more simple to the more complex. In no department of Natural Science is 
this progressive development more marked or more demonstrable than in the vegetable life of the globe. 

Systematic Arrangement should logically follow the natural order ; and by this method also, as now generally 
recognized, the best results of study and arrangement are obtained.- The sequence of Families formerly adopted
has become incongruous with our present knowledge; and it has for some time past been gradually superseded by
truer scientific arrangements in the later works of many authors.

It now seems probable that continued investigation and consideration will again modify the sequence of various 
groups. Many suggestions in this regard have already appeared in botanical literature; notably, in our own country,
those of Professor Charles E. Bessey.

The more simple forms are, in general, distinguished from the more complex, (1) by fewer organs or parts; (2) by 
the less perfect adaptation of the organs to the purposes they subserve; (3) by the relative degree of development
of the more important organs; (4) by the lesser degree of differentiation of the plant-body or of its organs; (5) by 
considerations of antiquity, as indicated by the geological record; (6) by a consideration of the phenomena of 
embryogeny. Thus, the Pteridophyta, which do not produce seeds and which appeared on the earth in Silurian 
time, are simpler than the Spermatophyta; the Gymnospermae in which the ovules are borne on the face of a 
scale, and which are known from the Devonian period onward, are simpler than the Angiospermae, whose ovules 
are borne in a closed cavity, and which are unknown before the Jurassic.

In the Angiospermae the simpler types are those whose floral structure is nearest the structure of the branch or 
stem from which the flower has been metamorphosed, that is to say, in which the parts of the flower (modified 
leaves) are more nearly separate or distinct from each other, the leaves of any stem or branch being normally 
separated, while those are the most complex whose floral parts are most united. These principles are applied to 
the arrangement of the Subclasses Monocotyledones and Dicotyledones independently, the Monocotyledones
being usually regarded as the simpler, as shown by the less degree of differentiation of their tissues, though their 
floral structure is not so very different nor their antiquity much greater, so far as present information goes. For 
these reasons it is considered that Typhaceae are the simplest of the Monocotyledones, and Orchidaceae the 
most complex; Saururaceae the simplest family of Dicotyledones in our area, and Compositae the most complex.

Inasmuch as evolution has not always been progressive, but some groups, on the contrary, have clearly been 
developed by degradation from more highly organized ones, and other groups have been produced by divergence
along more than one line from the parent stock, no linear consecutive sequence can, at all points, truly represent
the actual lines of descent.

Nomenclature.
The names of genera and species used in this work are in general accordance with the Code of Nomenclature 
recommended by the Nomenclature Commission of the Botanical Club of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, published in Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 34: 167-178, 1907, to which reference 
is made. The synonyms given under each species in this work include the recent current names, and thus avoid 
any difficulty in identification.

The necessity for rules of nomenclature arose from the great confusion that has existed through the many different
botanical names for the same species or genera. Some species have had from 10 to 50 different names, and, 
worse still, different plants have often had the same name. For about 200,000 known species of plants there are 
not fewer than 700,000 recorded names. Such a chaotic condition of nomenclature is not only extremely unscientific,
burdensome and confusing in itself, but the difficulty and uncertainty of identification which it causes in the 
comparative study of plants made it a serious and constant obstruction in the path of botanical inquiry.

The need of reform, and of finding some simple and fixed system of stable nomenclature, has long been recognized.
This was clearly stated in 1813 by A. P. DeCandolle in his "Theorie filementaire de la Botanique" (pp. 228-250), 
where he declares priority to be the fundamental law of nomenclature. Most systematists have acknowledged the 
validity of this rule. Dr. Asa Gray, in his "Structural Botany," says (p. 348): "For each plant or group there can be 
only one valid name, and that always the most ancient, if it is tenable; consequently no new name should be given 
to an old plant or group, except for necessity." This principle was applied to Zoology in the "Stricklandian Code," 
adopted in 1842 as Rules of the British Association, and revised in 1860 and 1865 by a committee embracing the
most eminent English authorities, such as Darwin, Henslow, Wallace, Clayton, Balfour, Huxley. Bentham and Hooker.
In American Zoology the same difficulties were met and satisfactorily overcome by a rigid system of rules analogous
to those here followed and now generally accepted by zoologists and palaeontologists.

At an International Botanical Congress held at Pans in 1867, A. DeCandolle presented a system of rules which, 
with modifications, were adopted, and are the foundation of the present rules of the botanists of the American 
Association. These rules were in part adopted also by the International Botanical Congress held at Genoa in 1892,
and by the Austro-German botanists at their meeting in September, 1904.

The Botanical Club of the American Association for the Advancement of Science adopted rules for Nomenclature at
meetings held in 1892 and 1893, which were followed in our first edition. An International Botanical Congress 
assembled at Vienna in 1905, and materially modified the Paris rules of 1867, and another Congress was held at 
Brussels in 1910. In the present edition the Code of Nomenclature recommended by the American Commission in 
1907, is closely followed, as above stated.

Types of Genera and Species.
The critical study of plants, resulting in the present knowledge by botanists of many more genera and species than
formerly, has made necessary more exact definition and determination of both genera and species by basing them
on types, a method previously reached in zoology. The following principles are contained in the Code of 
Nomenclature above referred to:

1. The nomenclatorial type of a species or subspecies is the specimen to which the describer originally applied the
name in publication.
	(a) When more than one specimen was originally cited, the type or group of specimens in which the type
	is included may be indicated by the derivation of the name from that of the collector, locality or host.
	(b) Among specimens equally eligible, the type is that first figured with the original description, or in 
	default of a figure the first mentioned.
	(c) In default of an original specimen, that represented by the identifiable figure or (in default of a figure)
	description first cited or subsequently published, serves as the type.

2. The nomenclatorial type of a genus or subgenus is the species originally named or designated by the author of 
the name. If no species was designated, the type is the first binomial species in order eligible under the following 
provisions:
	(a) The type is to be selected from a subgenus, section or other list of species originally designated as
	typical. The publication of a new generic name as an avowed substitute for an earlier invalid one does 
	not change the type of a genus.
	(b) A figured species is to be selected rather than an unfigured species in the same work. In the absence
	of a figure, preference is to be given to the first species accompanied by the citation of a specimen in a 
	regularly published series of exsiccatae. In the case of genera adopted from prebinomial authors (with 
	or without change of name), a species figured by the author from whom the genus is adopted should be
	selected.
	(c) The application to a genus of a former specific name of one of the included species, designates the 
	type.
	(d) Where economic or indigenous species are included in the same genus with foreign species, the 
	type is to be selected from (1) the economic species or (2) those indigenous from the standpoint of the
	original author of the genus.
	(e) The types of genera adopted through citations of nonbinomial literature (with or without change of 
	name), are to be selected from those of the original species which receive names in the first binomial 
	publication. The genera of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (1753) are to be typified through the citations 
	given in his Genera Plantarum (1754).

In the present edition, the type species of genera are cited or otherwise indicated.

English Names of Plants.
The general desire for some English name for the different plants described has been met so far as possible. All 
names in common use have been inserted, so far as they have come to the authors' knowledge, except such as 
were merely local, or where they were too numerous for insertion. An exception has also been made in a few 
instances where a common name, from its false suggestion, as in the name of Dog's-tooth Violet for Adder's-tongue,
is calculated to mislead as to the nature of the plant. Where no previous names in common use could be found, the
names given are founded on some characteristic circumstance of description, habitat, site or author.

In the first edition, many thousand popular names, compiled mostly by Judge Brown, were printed in the General 
Index only. In this edition, they are all carried into the body of the work in their appropriate places in connection with
the descriptive text a great convenience to those interested in plant-nomenclature. A few additional common names
are given in this edition.

No similar compilation of American plant-names has been hitherto published in any other work. Many of them are 
not to be found in any general dictionaries. To the mass of the people they will afford, in connection with the 
illustrations, the readiest means of plant identification.

The popular names are full of interest, from their origin, history and significance. Hundreds of them, brought to this
country by the early English Colonists, are still in current use among us, though now obsolete in England. As 
observed in Britten and Holland's work cited below, "they are derived from a variety of languages, often carrying us
back to the early days of our country's history, and to the various peoples who as conquerors or colonists have 
landed on our shores and left an impress on our language. Many of these old-world words are full of poetical 
associations, speaking to us of the thoughts and feelings of the people who invented them; others tell of the ancient
mythology of our ancestors, of strange old medicinal usages, and of superstitions now almost forgotten."

Most of these names suggest their own explanation. The greater number are either descriptive or derived from the 
supposed uses, qualities or properties of the plants; many refer to their habitat, appearance or resemblance real or

fancied to other things; others come from poetical suggestion, affection or association with saints or persons. Many

are very graphic, as the western name, Prairie Fire (Castilleia coccinea) ; many are quaint or humorous, as Cling-
rascal (Galium Aparine) or Wait-a-bit (Smilax rotundifolia); and in some the corruptions are amusing, as Aunt 
Jerichos (N. Eng.) from Angelica. The words Horse, Ox, Dog, Bull, Snake, Toad are often used as a prefix to denote
size, coarseness, worthlessness or aversion. Devil or Devil's is used as a prefix for upwards of 40 of our plants, 
mostly expressive of dislike or of some traditional resemblance or association. A number of names have been 
contributed by the Indians, such as Chinquapin, Wicopy, Pipsissewa, Wankapin, etc.; while the term Indian, 
evidently a favorite, is applied as a descriptive prefix to upwards of 80 different plants.

There should be no antagonism in the use of scientific and popular names, since their purposes are quite different.
Science demands certainty and universality, and hence a single universal name for each plant. For this the Latin 
has been adopted, and the Latin name should be used, when only scientific objects are sought. But the vernacular
names are a part of the growth and development of the language of each people. Though these names are 
sometimes indicative of specific characters and hence scientifically valuable, they are for the most part not at all 
scientific, but utilitarian, emotional or picturesque. As such, they are invaluable; not for science, but for the common
intelligence, and the appreciation and enjoyment of the plant world. These names, in truth, reflect the mental 
attitude of each people, throughout its history, toward the plant kingdom ; and the thoughts, suggestions, affections
or emotions which it has aroused in them. If these are rich and multitudinous, as in the Anglo-Saxon race, so will the
plant-names be also.

Usually the most common or the favorite plants have a variety of names; but this is noticeably otherwise with the 
Asters and the Golden-rods, of which there are about 125 species within our area, the common names of which, 
considering their abundance and variety, are comparatively few. The Golden-rods, without distinction, are also 
known as Yellowweed or Yellow-tops; the Asters are called also Frost-weed, Frost-flowers, Good-bye Summer
and by the Onandaga Indians, "It brings the Frost." A few like Aster ericoides have several interesting names, but 
most of the species in each genus resemble each other so much that not a quarter of the species have suggested
to the popular apprehension any distinctive name; while other less showy plants, like the Pansy (Viola tricolor), the 
Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris), the Spotted Touch-me-not (Impatiens biflora), Bluets (Houstonia coerulea) and
others, have a score of different names.

In compiling these names, reference has been made to numerous general and special botanical works, to our state
and local Floras, to Hobbs' Botanical Handbook (pharmaceutical), to Beat's, Scribner's and Pammel's works on 
Grasses, to Sudworth's Arborescent Flora, to Britten and Holland's Dictionary of English Plant Names (London, 
1886), and to the valuable papers of Mrs. F. D. Bergen on Popular Plant Names in the Botanical Gazette for 1892, 
p. 365; for 1893, p. 420; for 1894, P- 429, and for 1896, p. 473. Prof. E. S. Burgess has also supplied about 100 
popular names not before noted that are in use at Martha's Vineyard and in Washington, D. C. ; and Mrs. Horner, 
of Georgetown, Mass., and Miss Bartlett, of Haverhill, Mass., have each contributed some.

Pronunciation.
In botanical names derived from Greek or Latin words, their compounds, or derivatives, the accent, according to 
the ordinary rule, is placed upon the penultimate syllable, if it is long in Latin quantity ; otherwise, upon the 
antepenult. Many names, however, have been given to plants in honor of individuals, which, having nothing Latin 
about them except the terminal form, and the pronunciation given to them by botanical authors being diverse, are
here accented like the names of the persons, so far as euphony will permit. This rule is followed because it is 
believed to agree with the prevailing usage among botanists in ordinary speech; because it is in accord with the 
commemorative object of such names, which ought not to be obscured by a forced and unnatural pronunciation; 
and because the test applied to words properly Latin, viz., the usage of the Latin poets, cannot be applied to words
of this class. We therefore give Torreyi, Vaseyi, Careyi, Jamesii, Alleni, rather than Torreyi, Vaseyi, Careyi, Jamesii,
Alleni.

The acute accent is used to denote the short English sound only; as in bat, bet, bid, not, nut; the grave accent, to 
denote either of the other English sounds, whether long, broad or open; as 'a in bale, ball, bar, bare, laud; e in eve,
there; i in pine, pique, machine; o in note, move; u in pure, rude. The accent for the short or longer English sound 
is based upon current English usage, as given in the chief English dictionaries from Walker's to the most recent, 
and without reference to the supposed ancient pronunciation.

Much diversity has been found in botanical works in the accented syllable of many modern Latin adjectives ending 
in -inus, -ina, -inum, derived from Latin words. As these adjectives are derived from Latin roots and are regularly 
formed, their pronunciation should properly follow classical analogies. When signifying, or referring to, time, 
material, or inanimate substances, they should, therefore, according to Andrews & Stoddard's rule, have the penult
usually short, and the accent on the antepenult ; as in gossipina, cannabina, secalina, salicina, amygdalina, and 
other adjectives derived from plant names, like the classic nardinus, cyprinus, faginus. When these adjectives have
other significations than those above referred to, the penult under the ordinary Latin rule is usually long and 
accented; as in lupulina. leporina, hystricina, like the classic ursina, canina.

The Use of Capital Letters.
In accordance with the recommendations of the Nomenclature Commission of the Botanical Club of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, specific or varietal names derived from persons, or used as the 
genitive of generic names or as substantives, are printed with the initial capital letter. There is much difference of 
opinion as to the desirability of this practice, many botanists, and almost all zoologists, following the principle of 
writing all specific names with a small initial letter. Should this custom prevail, much information concerning the 
history and significance of the specific names would be lost. Thus in the Tulip-tree, Liriodeiidron Tulipifera, the 
specific name Tulipifera was the ancient generic name; and the same with Lythrum Salicaria, L. Hyssopifolia, L. 
Vulneraria, and many other species. In all other forms of writing, personal adjectives such as Nuttallii, Engelmanni 
or Torreyi are printed with capitals. We adhere to the ordinary literary usage.

Keys.
A general Key of the Orders and Families has been prepared by Dr. Britton according to the method followed in the
Keys to the genera and species. This general Key has been elaborated on the natural method, dividing the two 
subkingdoms of plants described in the work into Classes, Subclasses, Orders and Families successively. The 
Orders are not described in the work itself, but their principal distinguishing characters are given in this key. The 
natural method adopted necessitates a considerable number of exceptions to statements, owing to the varying 
degree of development of floral organs in the derivation of plants from their ancestors; these exceptions are either
noted under the headings or indicated by cross-references.

In using this key, or any of the keys to genera or to species, the student will often find, in the analysis of a plant 
that it does not provide all the information necessary for its determination; this is generally owing to the incomplete 
condition of the specimen collected; it may be in flower, while the characteristic differences between it and others 
are only to be found in the fruit, or vice versa; or the species may be dioecious, or polygamous, when its other 
organs, perchance the characteristic ones, must be sought on another individual, and there are various other 
causes for incompleteness. It is therefore earnestly recommended that collections be carefully made, seeking to 
reduce as far as possible this more or less necessary incompleteness. Where satisfactory material can not be 
obtained, it will usually be found possible to reach the desired analysis by following out two or more lines of the key,
and by comparing the results reached with the descriptions to determine the family, genus or species. The
illustrations provide an almost indispensable aid in such cases.

Assistance and Cooperation.
In the preparation of both the first edition and of the second we have had valued cooperation from many botanists,
which is here gratefully acknowledged. The late Professor Thomas C. Porter contributed much to the first edition by
suggestion, specimens, and the examination of proof sheets. Mr. Eugene P. Bicknell has contributed specimens
studied for both editions and read the proof sheets of the first. Dr. John K. Small has assisted in the preparation of
both editions, contributing the entire text of several families, and has read the proof sheets of the second. The 
Pteridophyte text was contributed to the first edition by the late Professor Lucien M. Underwood, and to the second
edition by Mr. William R. Maxon. The text of the Grass Family has been written by Mr. George V.'Nash for both 
editions; many of the drawings of grasses made by Mr. Theodore Holm for the first edition were supervised by 
Professor F. Lamson Scribner. The late Mr. Charles E. Smith critically examined the final proof sheets of the first 
edition. Mr. Frederick V. Coville has contributed the text of Juncaceae to both editions. The late Dr. Thomas 
Morong wrote the text of several families for the first edition. The text of the Carrot Family in both editions has been
examined by Dr. J. N. Rose. Most of the drawings for the first edition were supervised by Dr. Arthur Rollick.

For the second edition Mr. Kenneth K. Mackenzie has contributed the text of Carex, and supplied many specimens
for study; Mr. W. W. Eggleston has written the text of Crataegus; Dr. Ezra Brainerd has written the text of Viola; Dr. 
Per Axel Rydberg has aided in the determination of specimens; and many others have aided by specimens, notes
and information.

Draughtsmen.
Most of the drawings for the first edition were executed by Mr. F. Emil; he made all the figures of the Pteridophyta, 
Gymnospermae, and nearly all of the Monocotyledones, with the exception of those of Gramineae, Melanthaceae, 
Liliaceae and Convallariaceae ; also nearly all of the apetalous Choripetalae, and a considerable portion of the 
Sympetalae. Miss Millie Timmerman (now Mrs. Heinrich Ries) drew the bulk of the polypetalous Choripetalae, the 
enlarged parts being mostly inserted by Dr. Arthur Hollick; she also did some work on several of the sympetalous 
families. Mr. Joseph Bridgham drew the Melanthaceae, Liliaceae and Convallariaceae; also the Ericaceae, 
Primulaceae and several related families. Mr. Theodore Holm drew most of the Gramineae. Dr. Hollick has made 
some drawings and numerous enlargements of special parts throughout the work. Miss Mary Knight and 
Mr. Rudolph Weber have also contributed drawings.

The additional drawings needed for the second edition, and some corrections of the old ones, have been made by 
Mr. A. Mariolle, Miss Mary E. Eaton and Miss Rachel Robinson.
NEW YORK,
April 15, 1913.

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