PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
PREFACE
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.
CHESTER A. REED.
Worcester, Mass., 1907.
INTRODUCTORY
A plant is a wonderful organism, yet how few of us realize it as we casually glance at the flowers growing by the wayside. We see a beautiful flower; we know that in the course of time it withers and fades away; and we know that the next year the plant grows up again, sends forth its buds, which at the proper time unfold their petals, and so the cycle continues year after year, while we give little thought to the change that occurs, the cause and its effect. Volumes might be written, and a great many have been since the time of Darwin, upon the many interesting processes by which various flowers are propagated. As this book is confined chiefly to the identification of flowers, we will give but a few illustrations between flowering seasons. We see in most flowers a thing of beauty; their real and, to them, most important function is to produce seeds to perpetuate the species.
The parts of a flower that are necessary to produce seeds are the pistil, with its stigma at the top and ovule at the base, and the stamens with their pollen-laden anthers. A flower that has these organs is known as a perfect flower; if, in addition, it has a corolla and calyx, or petals and sepals, it is known as a complete flower. On the opposite page are shown a number of flowers with their parts named.