Xll P R E F A C K. 



But this was far from beiiio- the case with unshackk^d 

 inquirers ; and those who were led to the study of 

 Botany by the facility of the Linnsean system, could 

 not proceed far without perceiving the superior sim- 

 plicity and accuracy of nomenclature, as well as of 

 definition, which pervaded all the works of the same 

 author. A small party of ingenious and learned 

 men at Norwich, as recorded in the seventh volume 

 of the Linnsean Society's Titans act ions, p. 295, in 

 correspondence with Mr. Hudson and his able friend 

 Stillingfleet, entered, with awakened zeal and im- 

 proved principles, upon the cultivation of this an- 

 cient field of natural science. Several naturalists of 

 distinguished ability, in and about the metropolis, 

 pursued the same path. Mr. Lee of Hammersmith, 

 at the suggestion and with the assistance of the. ac- 

 complished Lady Ann Monson, published, in 1760, 

 his Introduction to Botany, in which the principles 

 of the great Swedish teacher were first fully ex- 

 plained to the English student. In the same year 

 Dr. Hill put forth his Flo7^a Britanjiica, illustrated by 

 a reimpression of the plates of Dillenius, and five 

 additional ones of his own. The classification and 

 generic characters of Linnaeus are here adopted, 

 but not his system of nomenclature, nor, with any re- 

 gularity, his specific definitions. The body of the 

 work is the third edition of Ray's Synopsis, almost in 

 its original form. We cannot help wondering that 

 Hill did not take advantage of an inaugural disser- 

 tation, published under the Presidency of Linnaeus 

 at Upsal, in 1754, bearing the title of Floi^a Anglica, 

 in which the plants of the Synopsis, with a reference 

 to its pages, are disposed according to the system 



