PREFACE. VU 



name, claims attention as the first general catalogue 

 of our native plants. This is a duodecimo volume 

 of 133 pages. The species are disposed alphabeti- 

 cally, and amount to about 1250, including several 

 exotic plants in general cultivation, with numerous 

 varieties of such as are truly wild. The names of 

 many are very erroneous, even among those most 

 easily determined, and many are, doubtless, admit- 

 ted on insufficient grounds. But, on the other hand, 

 several rare and curious species are noticed, not 

 without some entertaining and instructive remarks 

 and anecdotes. The same author in 1655 edited 

 Lobel's Illustrationes, a work not confined to British 

 plants, and chiefly aimed at certain errors of Park- 

 inson. Dr. How died in 1656, aged 37. His book 

 was the foundation of the following. 



P'lnax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum, by 

 Christopher Merrett, M.D., an octavo of 223 pages, 

 of which 165 are allotted to the Vegetable Kingdom, 

 appeared in 1667. The number of plants mentioned 

 in this work is not much greater than in the preced- 

 ing ; for though several species or varieties are added, 

 several are unaccountably omitted. Its plan and ar- 

 rangement are the same. Ray, in one of his letters, 

 calls this publication " Dr. Merrett's blundering 

 Pinax ;" an expression which appears harsh, if we 

 judge Merrett as an original author, because few 

 naturalists, at the time he lived, could have been 

 expected to succeed better in a first attempt. But 

 when it is considered how much assistance he 

 derived, not only from the above performance of 

 Dr. How, but likewise from the local catalogues or 

 Itineraries of Johnson, the Catalogue of Cambridge 



