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[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.

                                                        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.

[Illustration: PART