Many difficulties have been encountered in the arrangement of this guide to the flowers. To be really useful such a guide must be of moderate size, easily carried in the woods and fields; yet there are so many flowers, and there is so much to say about them, that we have been obliged to control our selection and descriptions by certain regulations which we hope will commend themselves to the intelligence of our readers and secure their indulgence should any special favorite be conspicuous by its absence.
These regulations may be formulated briefly as follows:
1. Flowers so common as to be generally recognized are omitted, unless some peculiarity or fact in their history entitles them to special mention.
Under this, Buttercups, Wild Roses, Thistles, and others are ruled out.
2. Flowers so inconspicuous as generally to escape notice are usually omitted.
Here Ragweed, Plantain, and others are excluded.
3. Rare flowers and escapes from gardens are usually omitted.
4. Those flowers are chosen for illustration which seem entitled to prominence on account of their beauty, interest, or frequent occurrence.
5. Flowers which have less claim upon the general public than those chosen for illustration and full description, yet which are sufficiently common or conspicuous to arouse occasional curiosity, are necessarily dismissed with as brief a description as seems compatible with their identification.
In parts of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and in the vicinity of Washington, I have been enabled to describe many of our wild flowers from personal observation; and I have endeavored to increase the usefulness of the book by including as well those comparatively few flowers not found within the range mentioned, but commonly encountered at some point this side of Chicago.