Vlll PUEfA.CE. 



was interrupted by the author's death : only the first part and a few sheets of 

 the second were printed, reaching, according to the Candollean system, from 

 Kanunculaceae to Melastomacese. The Hookerian Herbarium afforded me 

 an opportunity of comparing his originals and some of his manuscripts. 



Thus, of no part of the British West Indies has a tolerably complete Flora 

 ever been published since the time of P. Browne, and on a large number 

 of species occurring in these islands, general systematic works and periodical 

 literature are the only sources of information. A. Richard's ' Flora of Cuba' 

 (1838-1853), compiled from Ramon de la Sagra's and Linden's materials, 

 is so incomplete, that in other collections sent from that large island, e. g. 

 in those of Eugel and C. Wright, there occur nearly thrice as many species. 

 I much regret that I only very lately succeeded in procuring the Spanish 

 folio edition of Richard's work (printed about 1850), all the remaining copies 

 of which, as the publisher told me at Paris, were carried to Spain by Ramon 

 de la Sagra. Thus my quotations refer to the first volume of the French 

 edition in octavo, comprising only the Polypetalous Orders (1845), the second 

 volume never having been printed ; but 1 have been enabled to identify most 

 of Richard's new species from the plates, or from Linden's original specimens. 



At the end of the volume I have given a list of the botanists and collectors 

 to whom my materials of the Flora of the British West Indies are due. 

 From these specimens almost all the descriptive details have been drawn up ; 

 and it is but rarely that I have copied from other authors, or from the labels 

 of the collector, marking quotations by inverted commas, or adding as for 

 manuscript notes my authority in a parenthesis ( ).* 



The British Museum is particularly rich in old collections : those of Sieber 

 I consulted in the Hookerian Herbarium, and in Dr. Sonder's and my own 

 herbarium, whilst, for the inspection of many of Bartero's plants, belonging 

 to the Wiirzburg Museum, I am indebted to Professor Scheur. The large 

 bulk of West Indian plants at Kew consists of the collections of modern ex- 

 plorers, of whom the majority, however, are no longer living. Three zealous 

 correspondents have died during the publication of the work : Mr. Elsey, 

 shortly after his arrival in the island of St. Kitts, where he had begun to -col- 

 lect for my Flora ; the two others in the year of its termination, both of them 

 my German countrymen, Dr. Crueger, the late Director of the Botanic Gar- 

 den of Trinidad, and the Rev. Mr. Wullschlaegel, of Herrnhut, the former of 

 whom had contributed the duplicates of his Trinidad Herbarium, the latter 

 an extensive and highly valuable collection, the entire produce of his botanical 

 pursuits at the missionary stations in Antigua and Western Jamaica. The 

 principal Jamaica collections of the Kew Herbarium were made by Macfadyen, 

 Purdie, M'Nab, Distan, and Dr. Alexander Prior (to whom I am also indebted 

 for giving me the greatest facilities for consulting his rich private herbarium), 

 by Mr. Wilson, the Director of the Colonial Botanic Garden, and by Mr. 

 Marsh, a resident of the island, both of whom have sent ample materials 

 during tlie publication of this Flora. From the Bahamas, a group of islands 

 which promises still many novelties, Swainson's tolerably rich unpubbshed 



* Thus for accuracy generally I alone am responsible, though for many unavoidable im- 

 perfections of the work, I beg to take into account the usual state of dry specimens collected 

 in a tropical climate. 



