PREFACE. Xlll 



of Linnaeus, under the names of his Species Planta- 

 rum, the obscure ones being thrown into an appen- 

 dix. This dissertation, however incomplete, was 

 the first Linnsean Flora of our country. It was 

 doubtless consulted by Hudson, and his coadjutor 

 Stillingfleet, in the far more perfect work of which 

 I shall presently speak, and which became the uni- 

 versal text-book of British botanists. 



Several attempts had been made, before the Lin- 

 nsean system came into notice, to furnish the stu- 

 dents of English plants with a systematic manual, 

 in our native language ; and these, though now ob- 

 solete, ought not to pass unnoticed. 



Professor Martyn the elder, in 1732, accommo- 

 dated Tourneforf s History of plants growing about 

 Paris, to the plants of Britain, in English, with many 

 additions. Mr. John Wilson published at Newcastle, 

 in 1744, a Synopsis of British plants in Mr. Ray's 

 method. The authors of these performances were 

 practical botanists, though their books rank but as 

 compilations, and are now obsolete. Petiver illus- 

 trated Ray's Synopsis with a set of seventy-two folio 

 plates, having twelve figures in each, with English 

 names. These, though rude, would have been highly 

 valuable, had they, in every instance, been drawn from 

 native specimens ; but being often copied from fo- 

 reign books, whose figures, in several instances, were 

 misapplied, even by Ray himself, the engravings of 

 Petiver sometimes serve only to perpetuate error. 

 They are however often cited with advantage when 

 original, and will be found, in the sequel of this work, 

 to throw light upon many a difficult question. 



The F^;'^ylw^//cv7,by Mr.Williamlludson, F.R.S., 



