PREFACE. 



The reprint given in this Second Volume of the text originally published 

 in the * Annals of Natural History/ at different intervals between Feb. 

 1849 and March 1855, ought to have appeared long ago. Some apology 

 is therefore due for this great delay, which has been owing entirely to the 

 difficulty of preparing the plates. In nearly every instance, failure has 

 resulted where artists have been employed to copy my di-awings, and at 

 length I have been compelled to execute these a second time upon stone, 

 and also to complete the remainder, which has occupied much of ray time : 



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the only successful aid has been from Miss Wing, who has copied some of 

 my drawings with sufficient accuracy ; these are confined to the explana- 

 tions of the genus Lycium, and a few others in outHne. Most of the 



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illustrations are lithographed by me on stone ; others I have made on 

 paper, which have been copied, as fac-similes, by the Anastatic process. 

 I claim therefore some indulgence, both for the delay, and for the many 

 imperfections in the execution of the plates. 



The generic characters, in every case, have been worked out from my 

 own observations, without reference to those of former authors ; most of 

 the genera of the Atropacea have thus been investigated, and nearly all 

 those of the Solanacece, except the larger groups of Solanum, Capsicum, 



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Lithopersicum^ and a few other well-known genera. This has required 

 much patient examination, but the quantity of novel matter hence result- 

 ing, relative to the history of these Orders, is considerable, and must be 

 received as a contribution towards future and more complete monographs 

 of these two large families. I have given at some length, my views of the 



