PREFACE. 



The intention of the present volume is not 

 only to supply some deficiencies, in a work 

 of the same author, entitled An Introduction 

 to Physiological and Systematical Botany ; but 

 also to follow up its design, by additional in- 

 formation ; especially on the subject of the 

 natural classification, or affinities, of plants. 

 The reception of that elementary treatise has 

 been such, as to make it incumbent on the 

 author to neglect no opportunity of being 

 further useful. Yet he has not, hitherto, 

 thought proper to add any new matter to the 

 successive editions of his book, which the 

 possessors of the original might not obtain in 

 a separate form. The fourth edition, and the 

 American one, have therefore merely re- 

 ceived such emendations and corrections as 

 might prevent mistakes. To the fifth, lately 

 published, some recent observations or dis- 

 coveries, as well as some hypotheses and 

 changes made by eminent French writers, 

 have rendered a few additions necessary. 



