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PREFACE. 



Second volume of the Botanical Magazine having 

 been brought to a conclusion fince the death of Mr. 

 i Curtis, it feems proper that the very liberal encouragement 

 ithis Work has continued to receive friould be gratefully ac- 

 knowledged, the demand for it being by no means diminished, 

 notwithstanding the irreparable lofs fuflainedby that melancholy 

 [event, and the increafed price, which the preflure of the times 

 made neceffary. 



has 



To a few readers it may not be totally uninterefting to learn 



how the Botanical Magazine came under the prefent direction. 



Long before his death Mr. Curtis, perceiving his difTolution 



; gradually approaching, naturally became anxious to fecure to his 



\ family the pecuniary benefits arifing from the fale of the Work, 



[their fole depcndance. In order to leffen the impediments to 



\ carrying it on, he laboured, as much as his infirm itate of health 



, would permit, to arrange and increafe the neceffary materials. 



I He applied to feveral of his moft eminent botanical friends 



; and obtained their promife of afliftance. Finally, in the con- 



fidence of friendfhip, he fubjecled the future management to the 



controul of the prefent Editor, with whom he had many years 



lived in habits of intimacy. How far this confidence has been 



juftified by the event, with refpect to his family, cannot be a 



general concern, nor is it neceffary to fay any thing of the Work 



itfelfas far as it has hitherto proceeded: it is before a dif- 



cerning public and it's merit will be fairly appreciated. 



In the conftruction of thefe volumes, but little ufe has lat- 

 terly been made of the materials left by Mr. Curtis for feveral 

 reafbns, principally from a defire to preferve them as entire as 

 poffible for the fervice of the proprietors, in cafe of emergency, 

 and a wifh to indulge our botanical readers with a reprefenta- 

 lion and defcription of fome of the novel and curious plants 

 which are annually introduced, particularly from the Cape of 

 Good Hope. In one natural order (the En s at & of Linnaeus 

 — Irides of Juffieu) fuch additions have been made to our 



former 



