PEEFACE TO THE EIEST EDITION. 



I WILL admit in limine that I am not here writing to 



o 



instruct the professional student of Botany. Neither 

 do I aim to surprise my brother botanists by any new 

 arrangements in classification or discoveries in physi- 

 ology. But if I take a humbler rank than the dignity 

 of science may seem to warrant, and thus make no 

 advances in their estimation, still I hope I may be in 

 some degree useful in attracting the many to the 

 pleasures afforded by an examination of plants in their 

 wild localities, and thus, indirectly at least, subserve 

 the cause of Natural History, by enlisting recruits, 

 whose enthusiasm may perchance be awakened by my 

 incitations to observation and adventure. 



In my experience as a practical collecting botanist 

 for some years, I have invariably found that however 

 my botanical friends might take fire at the exhibition 

 of my specimens or the mention of their habitats, 

 that the uninitiated in these things were unable to 

 comprehend the sources of my pleasure, and could not 

 understand on what principle I could experience 

 delight in making long journeys, and taking fatiguing 

 rambles, merely in search of plants. On the other 



