Description
From the Foreword
Like its companion work An Introduction to Birds, this is a book for beginners of all ages. Its purpose is to enable the reader to recognize and name the more common wild flowers of our fields and woods, our swamps and roadsides, our hills and hollows. Wild flowers in their natural beauty have appealed to the eyes and hearts of mankind since the beginning of recorded history. In the Bible we find the recommendation: ‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.” We find flowers everywhere in poetry and painting. In the Wars of the Roses they became affairs of state. Flowers are a delight in childhood and still a delight in old age.
What comes as a pleasant surprise to those who look into the matter is the abundance of beautiful wild flowers that grow near us and that can be enjoyed free of charge through most months of the year. Those that are offered to view in this book are presented more or less in the general order in which you will find them coming into bloom if you begin to look “when the hounds of Spring are on Winter’s traces” and continue your search through the warm days of Summer to the cold days beyond that bring
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member-
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!
That is not the way in which a botanist would present these flowers. A botanist groups flowers as an ornithologist groups birds in Orders, Families, Genera and Species that follow one another, in systematic order. There are many fine Wild Flower Guides and weightier botanical works that list and describe the flowering plants of practically every section of the United States and Canada. In them each species is in its proper place. But such books often are too much for a beginner to tackle. The species are almost incredibly numerous and the law and logic behind the scientific arrangement are difficult for a novice in the field to grasp.
Hardcover, 77 pages. In very good pre-loved condition.