INTRODUCTION. 
Although I am a Draftsman and can both 
draw and paint the plants that I collect, yet the 
expense of time in doing so, with the cost of en- 
graving and colouring the drawings, are so 
great that I have but seldom availed myself of 
my talent and opportunities to publish costly 
figures of new or rare plants. I have preferred 
and I do now again prefer giving the specimens 
themselves for authentic figures. "This can be 
doue as cheap or cheaper than by multiplied 
figures: many splendid works of Iconographi- 
cal Botany are often published at much higher 
rates. Copied figures are not always accurate, 
nor expressing many minute characters of sur- 
face &c, and some botanists are not satisfied un- 
til they can examine the original specimens of 
discoverers or improvers; or when wishing to 
detract from the merit of vast botanical resear- 
ches, they deny the accuracy of whatever they 
cannot verify. 
This Autikon of 2500 figures by specimens 
will be the best answerto any vain attempt to 
depreciate my discoveries and researches— 
although I have 5000 fine plants to illustrate in 
this manner, I have selected for this work, the 
rarest or new, else the finest or unfigured; such 
as will illustrate my botanical works and im- 
provements, particularly those that shall be 
omitted in the North American Flora, lately 
undertaken jointly by Torrey,Gray and Nuttal, 
who have overlooked or left unnoticed many of 
our New Genera and Species, because either 
not met by them, or blended with others when 
seen in fields or herbals. Whence the need of 
giving sometimes the figures of akin species for 
contrast. 
