INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 7 



be supposed a later or earlier name was to be preferred. Some 

 additional species, since discovered or ascertained, have been put 

 in their proper places. For ease of reference to Lindley's work, 

 his numbers of the several Orders have been given, although many 

 of his Orders are omitted, because we have no plants belonging 

 to them. 



It has been supposed, too, that while the objects to be attained 

 by the Legislature in the Survey, required a systematic arrange- 

 ment in the outline, it was important that the descriptions should 

 be popular in their character, easy to be apprehended, and 

 not technical in their language, and that notice should be taken 

 of facts of importance or of interest in any respect. The botan- 

 ical name, with the usual abbreviation of the author's name, has 

 been given, but without the synonymes ; because one name 

 would direct the botanist to the plant intended, and more names, 

 and even all the synonymes, would offer no advantage to the com- 

 mon reader. 



The cultivated plants have been introduced, whether raised in 

 the garden or on the farm, and many of the parlour ; whether de- 

 signed for ornament, food, clothing, or art, or manufacture. All 

 these were supposed to have been intended in the Survey of 

 Vegetable Life in the Commonwealth. 



In drawing up this Report, besides the actual examination of a 

 great proportion of the plants, and the advantage of a long atten- 

 tion to them, reference has been freely made to all the accessible 

 authors on our plants, to several of whom abundant and direct 

 acknowledgment is made. The descriptions of the Orders, how- 

 ever, are chiefly from Lindley's work already referred to, while 

 the properties and geography have been taken from him and any 

 others who have treated of them. It is too well known for re- 

 mark, that the works of Michaux, Muhlenburg, Rush, Bigelow, 

 Eaton, Torrey, Nuttall, Beck, &c., contain full scientific accounts 

 of nearly all the plants mentioned in this Survey. There is room, 

 doubtless, for the display of their economical properties, and their 

 application to art and manufacture, to the support, and ornament, 

 and enjoyment of life, to a much greater extent. The Agri- 

 cultural Survey will probably detail many particulars respecting the 



