CRYPTOGAMIA, ast 
has been taken to avoid doubtful references. What use 
can there be in the insertion of a figure or a synonym with 
a note of interrogation at the end of it? If the Author; 
with all his attention collected upon the subject, and possi- 
bly with the plant before him, cannot decide, why perplex 
‘his readers by desiring them to do it? In: some cases 
it may be useful to refer to a figure which it is well 
known was not drawn for the plant in question. Thus, 
when a new species occurs, or one which has never yet 
been figured, a reference to a drawing which resembles it 
in size, and in habit, may be useful, if care be taken to 
announce the circumstance, and to point out the dissimi- 
litudes, 
- ‘The reader will find, on turning to other authors, that 
a number of references to the species before known, are 
omitted in this work; but he is not hastily to conclude 
that this has been in consequence of careless inattention, 
He may be assured that they have been examined, and aré 
not omitted without a cause. Sometimes circumstances 
made it necessary more directly to point out these errors 
but it was an invidious task ; fe edieving: that notwith- 
standing his utmost care, the present work will still be 
liable to errors of the same nature, he has felt unwillin 
to censure his predecessors, to whose labours he shoul 
have thought himself greatly indebted, even were their 
errors ten fold what they are. 
‘The specific character of Linnaus is always added, 
where no doubt existed of the identity of the species, and 
it was the Author’s wish to have quoted all the cs of 
Mr. Ray under their proper heads, but the want of figures, 
and the brevity of ie descriptions, deterred him from 
assigning a place to many of them. Here it ma be ob- 
served, that where the descriptions of that admirable Bota- 
nist are sufficiently full, or where he could refer to a figure, 
the Agarics of the present day a to be precisely what 
their predecessors were a hundred years ago. This it was 
thought necessary to remark, to quiet the apprehensions of 
some who have been deterred from the study of these sub- 
jects, by a prevalent hse that art ie ped age ng ng 
ently in e of any fixe tle 
eee irl St ficult to oa out the origin 
character. It would not be dit yut 
of this opinion, but it is sufficient to say that it is not true, 
