The purpose of this booklet is to portray a few of the common wildflowers of Colorado in such form that they may be recognized and their names learned without the use of any botanical key. The color plates here published show fifty different flowering plants, each of which grows in abundance in some part of this state. Most of them are found also in other areas, particularly in the Rocky Mountain states. With the description of each plant, some reference is made to the life zone in which it grows, but no attempt is made to give the geographical extent of its range. In every instance the photograph reproduced was taken on Kodachrome film of a living plant in its natural setting. All of them are shown in full bloom as we see them in Spring or Summer, except milkweed, page 43, and cattail, back cover. These appear in seed as we find them along the roadsides in October.

The flowers are here arranged in substantially the order that the families to which they belong appear in most botany manuals. Some references to these plant families, and to the genera and species into which they are subdivided, will be found on page 57. With each plant we have given the common name most familiar to us. As there is little uniformity in common name usage, others may know them by other names. We have added in each case, in italics, the Latin botanical name, with abbreviated identification of the botanist first using that name. The English form of the family name is also given. We have tried to select flowers representing as many plant families as possible, and among them to cover plants from different altitudes and from different types of soil and growing conditions.

Some of these photographs were taken at close range, with a long focal length lens, to show on a large scale the beauty of very small flowers. Others were taken with different equipment so as to include the form of the complete plant and show plainly its natural setting. In all cases the size of the flower and of the entire plant are given in or may be inferred from the descriptive text. The figures used are approximate, and considerable variation from these sizes will be found. The colors are as accurate as colorfilm and high class press work can make them.

The pictures here reproduced were all taken by the authors within the past twelve years. Most of the plants were found within a few hundred feet of some well traveled road. A few of the pictures were taken in adjoining states, but in every such instance the species shown is found in the same sort of environment in Colorado. Many of these flowers are reproduced as part of the setting in habitat life groups in the Denver Museum of Natural History. Look for them there, and also get acquainted with them in their native haunts. They add decided interest to outdoor ramblings.