wi PREFACE. 
at Leipsic in 1791. Many of.the Specific Cha- 
‘Tacters, particularly in the more. difficult tribes, 
are entirely new, and many have undergone con- . 
siderable alterations. The. Author has shot hesi- 
tated in these attempts at improvement, because 
he is fully convinced that neither the > amendment, 
nor the entire change of these characters can pro- 
duce confusion in the science, so Tong 4 as the trivial 
hames remain inviolable. es 
“Many of the aaditidnal descriptions taken from 
foreign Authors have been discarded, to make 
room for others made by the Author or his friends 
from recent examinations of the plants as they grow 
in this island: other descriptions are shortened, . 
; especially where the plants are well known, and 
indubitably distinguished by the specific character. 
The references to figures so ably executed by 
Dr. Stokes for a great part of the second edition, 
are mostly preserved in this, though not without 
some changes in the order of excellence, the era- 
sure of a few which were found to be erroneous, 
and of others which were thought too bad to be 
quoted. The historical facts relative to the older 
figures, stating which are copies andwhich originals, 
though perhaps thought curious by some few peo- 
ple, are omitted, partly because they are foreign to 
the purpose of this work, and partly to make room 
for additional references now given to infinitely 
better figures, in the continuations of Jacavix, 
