VI PREFACE. 



sion to the different Orders of the Class Cryptogamia, " if 

 not yet brought into perfect daylight, might well, by the 

 help of those brilliant northern lights, Acharius, Fries, and 

 Agardh, have been made more accessible to the student, and 

 more instructive to systematic botanists, by one long accus- 

 tomed to their contemplation in the wild scenes of nature, and 

 not unfurnished with remarks of his own. If our bodily powers 

 could keep pace with our mental acquirements, the student of 

 half a century would not shrink from the delightful task of being 

 still a teacher ; nor does he resign the hope of affording some 

 future assistance to his fellow-labourers, though for the present, 

 ' a change of study,' to use the expression of a great French 

 writer, « may be necessary by way of relaxation and repose.' " 



Neither relaxation nor repose, however, was sufficient to 

 restore the bodily powers of Sir James Smith : exhausted by 

 long suffering, they sank under the pressure of disease ; and the 

 task of completing our national Flora is left to another, who, 

 whatever his talents and knowledge, can never look upon the 

 portion finished by the original author, without the sentiment 

 that it is impossible for the succeeding part to be made equal 

 to it. The very nature of the subject would preclude such a 

 hope; and he would be a bold man, who would venture to 

 entertain the expectation that he could rival a performance 

 which has justly obtained the highest encomiums from the most 

 eminent Botanists of Europe, and which will not fail to be 

 prized, so long as accurate description, conveyed in language 

 singularly elegant and agreeable, shall continue to be estimated 

 as it deserves. 



Fully impressed with this conviction, I have, nevertheless, in 

 compliance with the wish of the Publishers, undertaken the 

 task ; in doing which, I earnestly hope, that my labours will be 

 regarded with the indulgence I know they require, and that 

 those who detect my errors, will have the kindness and the can- 

 dour to acquaint me with them ; for thus only can we hope to 

 obtain a perfect knowledge of these families of the vegetable 

 kingdom, which, from their minute size, are too apt to be re- 

 garded as repulsive, instead of attractive, and which, from that 

 same circumstance, necessarily require unusual pains to detect 

 and to discriminate them. These difficulties are, indeed, in 

 some measure, removed by the valuable helps afforded in the 



