UBRARV 

 NEW Yd^ie 



PREFACE. GARMP^. 



This work originated in a desire, on the part of the Author, to 

 make his countrymen acquainted with the progress of Systematical 

 Botany abroad, during the previous quarter of a century. "\Mien it 

 first appeared, the science was so httle studied that the very names 

 of some of the best writers on the subject were unfamiliar to 

 English ears. In our own language there was nothing whatever; 

 and the Natural System of arranging plants, although occasionally 

 mentioned as a something extremely interesting, was currently 

 regarded as the fond speculation of a few men with more enthusiasm 

 than sound judgment; and this, too, was the opinion expressed by 

 persons who stood at the head of English Botany, in the estimation 

 of many British Naturalists. The Author had himself severely 

 experienced the want of some guide to this branch of Natural 

 History, and he felt anxious to reheve others from the inconve- 

 nience which he had encountered; the more especially after he had 

 undertaken the responsibility of filling the Botanical Chair in the 

 then London University. At that time, too, there was nothing of 

 foreign origin which could be advantageously consulted ; for Bart- 

 ling's Ordines had not reached England, Perleb's Lehrhuch was 

 unknown, and both it and Agardh's Classes were of too slight a 

 texture to be generally useful to any except Botanists themselves. 

 The importance of the Natural System in a practical country 

 like Great Britain was too manifest to leave any doubt in the 

 mind of the Author that the good sense of his countrymen would 

 lead to its universal reception when once placed within their reach, 

 h^or has he been disappointed. Fifteen years have sufficed to ren- 

 CTfler the once popular, but superficial and useless, system of Linnaeus 

 , a mere matter of history. Fuit Ilium. 

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