



NEW YORK 



BOTANiCAL 



QARDfeN 



PREFACE. 



liiE many advantages which would result from a work of this na- 

 ture, properly executed, and supported by the assistance and contri- 

 butions of the well-informed part of the conuTiunity, must be so obvi- 

 ous as to require no observation. The ccnipiler has onl}^ to i egret, 

 that his abilities, and his opportuaities of acquiring knowledge on the 

 subject, are not adequate to the task of rendering it perfect: a task, 

 indeed, hardly to be perlbrmed by au individual. 



The principal motive wlrlch induced to this collection was a consi- 

 deration of the great scarcity of almost every valuable work which 

 treated of the plants of Jamaica, and the little probability ot their re- 

 publication. Possessed of these books, as well as many others on the 

 science of botany, which he had studied as an amusement, a:*d hav- 

 ing occasionally leisure time, the compiler thought he could not bet- 

 ter employ such advantages, than by collecting together the observa- 

 tions of different authors on each particular plant, and comparing 



them. 



