X NOTICE. 



plete than had been anticipated, very few descriptions 

 having been finished except in the genus Helix, and 

 none of the generic descriptions except those of the 

 Limacida3. Many new species have also been added 

 from the collections which he had caused to be made 

 in the South-western States and Texas, but which 

 his health had not permitted him to examine. The 

 passages for Avhich I am responsible are indicated 

 by the annexation of the letter " g." A number of the 

 plates also remained to be designed or engraved. It 

 was the intention to have had the work issued very soon 

 after the decease of Dr. Binney ; but the scattered state 

 of the materials, at various places in this country and in 

 Europe, and the difficulty of procuring suitable artists, 

 have caused most perplexing delays. 



I cannot hope to have produced the work such as he 

 would have made it. My comparative ignorance of a 

 subject to which he had given so much of the attention of 

 a mind deeply in love with his subject, and thoroughly 

 prepared for a full and philosophical treatment of it, 

 would forbid this. Nor can I pride myself on possessing 

 that delicate artistical taste with which he was so well 

 endowed, and which is so necessary in the details of 

 such a publication. But so far as a general knowledge 

 of his design, together with a sincere wish to do justice 

 to the memory of a friend, could avail, they have been 

 given to the work. 



A. A. GOULD. 

 BosTOX, 1850. 



