PREFACE. g* 
of money (at the rate of £150 per volume), relieved them from 
much of the cost of publication ; and at the same time has left 
the whole impression at their disposal. Few works of the kind 
have a large sale, and without such patronage the present Flora 
could not be carried out. Nor has the Governor's thoughtful 
kindness been limited to obtaining the parliamentary grant. 
His Excellency, by a government notice (No. 387.—1857) has 
invited contributions of dried specimens of plants from persons 
residing within the Colonies, or the neighbouring Free States, and 
has undertaken to forward the same, if sent to the Colonial Office, 
Capetown, to the authors, free of expence. Already this notice 
has elicited the active co-operation of several obliging collectors 
of specimens, and furnished much valuable material for this work. 
The authors now earnestly solicit from their still unknown 
friends, collections, large or small, of specimens, dried according 
to the plain directions which will be found at page xxiv of the 
“Intr. to Botany” that follows this preface ; which collections 
shall be duly and thankfully acknowledged in future volumes. 
And, as they may serve to render the Flora more complete than 
it could otherwise be, the senders will be doubly rewarded; they 
will have the satisfaction of having forwarded the cause of science, 
and will reap the advantage promised to those that cast bread on 
the waters,—they will themselves gain information by imparting 
it to others. 
The authors have now thankfully to acknowledge their obli- 
gations :— : 
To Mrs. F. W. BArser of Queenstown district, and her 
brother Henry Bowker, Esq., for several very interesting par- 
cels of the rarer plants of the Winterberg, and of the country 
extending thence eastward beyond the Kei. 
To GENERAL Botton, R. E., for collections made in the 
neighbourhood of Grahamstown. 
To Henry Hutton, Esq. of Grahamstown, for considerable 
collections made in Albany. 
To JoHN SANDERSON, Esq. of D’Urban, for very interesting 
and valuable collections from the Natal Colony and from Trans- 
vaal, containing many new genera and species. 
To Dr. SuTHERLAND, Surveyor-General, Natal, for small but 
