INTRODUCTION. 



THOSE who are about to commence a study 

 which has hitherto been regarded merely as an orna 

 mental branch of education, may reasonably enquire 

 what advantages they are to derive from their botani- 

 cal pursuits ; what reward for the fatigue of patient 

 and long continued research ? 



It is scarcely necessary to point to the examples of 

 many illustrious men, who have devoted their time to 

 the cultivation of botanical science. They have erect- 

 ed a noble fabric, and the student who enters its por- 

 tals, feels interested to know, by whom the materials 

 were collected, and by whose exertions they have been 

 thus judiciously arranged. He is surrounded by monu- 

 ments of their ingenuity, and pauses to enquire, in 

 what section of the world, and at what period, lived the 

 men whose names are thus honorably preserved from 

 oblivion. 



Of these men, some have been distinguished for the 

 accuracy of their descriptions, some for the extent of 

 their acquirements, and some for the intrepidity, with 

 which they braved danger and endured privations. 

 Those only who have most successfully endeavoured 

 to advance the interest of our science, and to promote 



