[Illustration: HER FIRST LESSON IN BOTANY]
FLOWER GUIDE
REVISED AND WITH NEW ILLUSTRATIONS
WILD FLOWERS EAST OF THE ROCKIES
BY
CHESTER A. REED
Author of “North American Birds’ Eggs,” “Bird Guide,” Etc.
_With 320 Flowers in Color, Painted by the Author_
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1927
[Illustration: ]
Copyrighted, 1907
CHAS. K. REED
Worcester, Mass.
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.