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[Illustration: TEXAS BLUEBONNET THE STATE FLOWER]
Published by EULA WHITEHOUSE Dallas, Texas
Eula Whitehouse Box 739, Southern Methodist University Dallas 5, Texas
Printed and bound in the United States of America
From the pine woods to the prairies, From the Panhandle to the sea, You’ll find the Texas wildflowers In marvelous carpetry.
Such magic tints of colors, Pale pinks and dainty blues, No artist’s palette can match them In all their radiant hues.
The Texas sun has kissed them; To Heaven they lift their eyes; Beauty and Peace it brings them, And Freedom under Texas skies.
For more than a century the wild flowers of Texas have been a source of study and pleasure to scientists and flower lovers. The state can boast of a varied and interesting flora which has attracted numerous plant collectors since the first specimens were collected in the Texas Panhandle by Dr. Edwin James, naturalist accompanying the Long Expedition in 1820. Dr. Louis Berlandier, a French botanist, endured the hardships of the Teran Expedition for the exploration of the boundary region between Texas and Mexico between 1826 and 1834 in order to collect plants in Texas.
Berlandier’s first collection was instrumental, a few years later, in arousing the interest of Thomas Drummond, a Scotch botanist and collector. In 1833-34 Drummond visited Southeast Texas and collected 700 species of plants. In 1836, Ferdinand Lindheimer, a German botanist, moved to Texas and began his noteworthy study and collection of Texas plants. Charles Wright, a Yale graduate, came to Texas in 1837, first collecting plants in East Texas and later making important additions in Southwest Texas. Since the work of these early pioneers, many scientists have visited nearly all parts of the state and have added many new names to the list of native plants.
Today nearly five thousand species of flowering plants have been reported from the state. About half of these have showy, conspicuous flowers, and many of them are very limited in their distribution in Texas. If the reader will keep these figures in mind, perhaps he will not be disappointed at not finding some of his favorite flowers in the following pages. As such a limited number could be included, it was thought best to use those widely distributed throughout the state, omitting some of the well-known plants which have been frequently illustrated in previous publications.