Whose heart is not gladdened at the sight of the first Mayflower or Arbutus in the spring? Who can pass a body of water, its surface glistening with the beauty of the Water Lily, without appreciation? In the fall who can traverse a field blind to the brilliancy of the seas of Purple Asters and gleams of the Goldenrod? Yet it is only within a very few years that there has been any real, concerted interest shown by the masses in Nature Study. To be sure, botany has long been taught in some of the higher schools, but it was of advantage only to comparatively few. Now the call for knowledge, or at least the name, of what is seen in their daily rambles is voiced by tens of thousands.

Since the publication, early in 1906, of the first edition of Bird Guide, the author has been besieged by requests from all parts of the country, and from people in every walk and station of life, to continue the idea and bring out similar volumes on flowers, butterflies, fish, animals, etc. The present volume has been carefully prepared with two objects always in view—to serve the greatest number of persons in the best possible way—and still have a volume that can be carried in the pocket with little or no discomfort. The great majority of the colored paintings have been made directly from living plants, and the balance, with few exceptions, from herbarium specimens. They represent normal specimens and have been so chosen as to include those of the conspicuous flowering plants found from the Atlantic seaboard west to the States of the Mississippi Valley. Using my 25 years, devoted largely to the study of living things, as a criterion, I have endeavored to incorporate in the text and in the pictures just those points that will best serve to identify a flower that the reader may find. The introductory pages give the life cycle of a plant from seed to seed and many curious facts concerning curious plants.

Should this volume identify some of the flowers that the reader may discover, and give him a clearer idea of the appearance and beauty of the growing things that may be found, the author’s purpose will have been fully accomplished.