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TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



The Introduction to the Natural System of Botany, was published 

 in London last autumn, and a copy of the work was shortly after obli- 

 gingly sent to me by the author. I at once perceived that a desidera- 

 tum in British and American Botany, long felt and lamented, was at 

 length supplied. In France, the natural or philosophical method has 

 for many years past taken the place of the artificial or sexual system of 

 Linnaeus, and recently by the labours of Brown, Lindley, Hooker, Gre- 

 ville, and others, it has begun to be employed in England and Scotland, 

 The principal obstacle, however, to the use of the natural system in 

 Great Britain and North America, has been the want of an elementary 

 work on the subject ; for, with the exception of Sir J. E. Smith's Gram- 

 mar of Botany, no treatise on the natural classification in the English 

 language had been published until the " Introduction" of Mr. Lind- 

 ley, the distinguished Professor of Botany in the University of London, 

 made its appearance. It therefore occurred to me that I could not do a 

 more acceptable service to the friends and cultivators of Botanical Science 

 in the United States, than by preparing an American edition for the press 

 forthwith. Accordingly, an arrangement was made with the enterprising 

 Messrs. Carvill of this city, to have it printed in the course of the en- 

 suing summer ; but various circumstances had delayed its publication 

 until the present time. 



In this edition I have taken the liberty of making a few additions 

 (chiefly references to treaties published since the Introduction was 

 written,) which are included in brackets ; and also of substituting a few 

 terms for others employed by the author, and which might be thought 

 objectionable in a work that will doubtless become popular in this country. 

 I have also prefixed to the principal work a small but very valuable 

 treatise, by the same author, entitled, An Outline of the First Princi- 

 ples of Botany, and published by him in a separate form. This is an 

 epitome of modern philosophical Botany, and will be found highly useful 

 to those who wish to obtain an accurate knowledge of (he Natural < la -si 

 fication of the Vegetable Kingdom. 



