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12 QAM OV, bb 
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Ib. 80 
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PREFACE. 
On the completion of Volume VII. the preparation of Volume 
IV. was taken up. Professor Francis GuTHRIE and Dr. Bonus 
undertook in South Africa the elaboration of Ericacew. Mean- 
while, with the aid of contributors whom I was able to enlist 
at home, a commencement was made with the présent volume, 
and the first part was published as long ago as.1901. Un- 
happily the death of Professor GUTHRIE in 1899 and the 
failing health of Dr. BoLus left. their contribution unfinished, 
and it had to be continued and completed at Kew. It became 
impracticable to make any further progress with Volume V. 
till the two sections of the preceding one had been disposed of. 
In a vast undertaking like the present, the progress of which 
is necessarily protracted, it is the inevitable but melancholy 
task of the Editor to record the loss from time to time of those 
whose generous assistance and co-operation have made its 
ultimate accomplishment possible. That it should be so must. 
be his justification for the somewhat erratic mode.of publication 
which he has felt obliged to adopt. Particular orders have 
been as far as possible entrusted to those who had made them 
a special study. Had he waited to invoke their aid in follow- 
ing a continuous sequence, that aid would in at least two 
cases have been unavailable and with difficulty replaced. 
CHARLES BARON CLARKE, M.A., F.R.S., died 25th August, 1906 ;. 
he elaborated Commelinacee (1897), Cyperacee (1898) and 
Acanthacee (1901) in the present volume, (Obituary notice 
and bibliography, Kew Bulletin, 1906, pp. 271-281.) MaxwELL 
TyLpEN Masters, M.D., F.R.S., died 30th May, 1907 ; he worked 
out Restiacew for the Flora in 1897. (Obituary notice and 
bibliography, Kew Bulletin, 1907, pp. 325-334.) Dr. THEODORE 
