ADVERTISEMENT 
Tuer Proprietors take this opportunity of explaining the circumstances under which 
they find themselves reluctantly obliged to close the Work at its present stage. At 
the commencement of the undertaking the Editor arranged with them to complete it 
in Four Volumes ; but when the present or fourth volume was printed, he informed 
them for the first time, to their surprise, that his materials had proved so much more 
voluminous than he anticipated, that the descriptions of the remaining plants would 
fill more than two additional volumes of the same extent. They are compelled to 
add, that the circulation of the Work has hitherto been too limited to afford them any 
prospect of reimbursement of the large additional expense which would be incurred if 
they proceeded to complete the Work ; an expense which they had not originally 
contemplated. As, however, the Work has been compiled upon the Natural 
System, the description of that division of the science which is contained in the 
. four published. volumes is complete, and the volumes are consequently not, 
dn this respect, rendered imperfect by the absence of the remaining two, since 
they contain a complete account of the Dichlamydeous plants. In justice to the 
Editor they feel bound to add, that he has spared no labour to render the Work as 
comprehensive and perfect as possible ; and they are confident that no publication has 
hitherto appeared in this country which contains nearly so large a compass of valuable 
information upon that division of Botany of which it treats. "They can only account 
for the confined circulation which the present Work has hitherto met with in the altered 
taste of the day for treatises of a less recondite and extensive nature. 
The Proprietors would be ready to complete the Work if they could hope for 
