Flower Guide, Wild East of the Rockies
Book title: Flower Guide, Wild East of the Rockies
Author: Chester A. Reed
Editor: Charles K. Reed
Publication year: 1910
Copyright: Charles K. Reed, 1910
Format: 3 ½ X 5 ½ inches
Type of cover: glossy cardboard and soft leather
Number of pages: 230 pages, over 250 color drawings of flowers
PRetail price in 1910: $0.75 Glossy cardboard
$1.00 Soft leather
Mailing cost: 0.05$
In the first edition of the flower guide, Chester A. Reed showed 200 flowers in color. In this edition, he showed 320 flowers, in the same format. To accomplish that work, he condensed the information and his comments on details, which facilitated the identification of the plant. He didn’t change the preface written in 1907 or the introduction.
In the 1907 version, he showed flowers organized by colors: orange flowers, yellow flowers, pink flowers, etc. In the second edition, he specified that the plants were organized by natural order, based on the last edition of “Gray’s Botany.” The presentation followed a scientific order, which was a good compromise to reach amateurs and academic readers.
The use of the 4-Color Process gave another dimension to the user-friendly book that could be used in the forest. Even though Chester had published “Wild Flowers East of the Rockies” the same year as a 4 x 6 inch, 420 page book with the same number of flowers, the “Guide” format was more popular.
At the end of the book, he presented a flower identification key based on colors, as well as many ads for Chester A. Reed’s books.