Vlll PREFACE. 



ment as to an Index : by it he will be referred to the place 

 it occupies in the Natural System, where the different spe- 

 cies will be enumerated. A little practice will render this 

 easy, and the student will gradually acquire a knowledge of 

 the Natural Orders, without being exposed to discourage- 

 ment by the obstacles which he would otherwise encounter. 



I take this opportunity of expressing my obligations to 

 the writings of Professor De Candolle of Geneva, whose 

 arrangement of the Natural Orders, exposed in the Prodro- 

 7nus Systematis Universalis Regni Vegetabilis, I have strictly 

 followed. To his works, also, I acknowledge myself in a 

 great measure indebted for the definitions of the genera, 

 and, with those of Lindley and Richard, for the general 

 descriptions of the Orders. As to the introduction of the 

 latter in the present publication, it may be objected that 

 the reader might with more propriety have been referred 

 to the works from which they have been drawn. 1 have to 

 state in answer, that although I am not without hopes that 

 this work may be thought worthy of the notice of the emi- 

 nent in the Science, still as my principal aim is to facili- 

 tate the study of the Botany of these Islands, I considered 

 they could not with propriety be left out, especially as, in 

 the West Indies, books of Science are scarce, and with 

 difficulty procured. 



I need scarcely state that I shall thankfully avail m.yself 

 of any information, which may be communicated to me by 

 any one who has made the Botany of Jamaica an object 

 of his attention. As for my own share of labour, I may 

 be allowed to state, that it has occupied a great portion of 

 my leisure during a residence of upwards of twelve years in 

 the Island. I have carefully examined the characters of 

 every plant within my reach, and compared my own de- 

 scriptions with those of preceding Botanists. I have visited 

 a considerable portion of the Island, so that I have had 

 opportunities of studying the peculiarities of the Flora of 



