r 332 ] 



Several circumstances have caused a long delay 

 in the publication of the present volume, which, if 

 their recurrence should not be prevented, may render 

 the completion of the work, according to its original 

 plan, very precarious. In the mean while, the num- 

 ber of volumes originally proposed is now finished, 

 and the first 23 Classes are completed, as well as the 

 first Order of the 24th, Cryptogamia Filices, the 

 only one that required more study and emendation 

 than it has hitherto received. 



Of the remaining Orders, the Musci have been de- 

 tailed in the Latin Flora Britannica and Compen- 

 diiun of the author, as well as in his English Botany ; 

 and by other well-known writers, in two editions of 

 the Muscologia Br'itannica, and the MuscologicB 

 Hibernic(S Spicilegium. Still this beautiful and in- 

 teresting tribe of plants might prove susceptible of 

 much illustration to English readers, and of some im- 

 provements relative to generic distribution, on prin- 

 ciples too little studied by the pursuers of superabun- 

 dant discrimination, instead of philosophical combi- 

 nations. This is the bane of natural science at the 

 present day. Hence ihejilum Ariadneum is lost, or 

 wilfully thrown away, and a bandage darkens the sight 

 of the teacher no less than that of the student. 



The monograph of Dr. Hooker on British Junger- 



