PREFACE. XV 



in which troublesome but necessary task he has been most essen- 

 tially assisted by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who furnished the list of 

 Fungals,, and by Mr. Bentham, to whom he is indebted for those 

 of Leguminous and Labiate plants and of Figworts. The reader 

 will perceive that according to the custom of Botanists the names 

 of genera which the Author adopts, are printed in Roman letters, 

 and succeeded by others indented and printed in italics. The 

 latter are either synonyms, or subgenera which do not at present 

 appear to be of importance enough to be regarded as true genera. 



In computing the number of species, attention has been paid 

 not only to pubHshed statements, but also to such appearances of 

 undescribed species as the Author^ s own herbarium indicates, 

 assisted occasionally by a little guess-work, where Natural Orders 

 have not been recently examined with care, or where species have 

 been notoriously founded upon trifling and unimportant characters. 

 He does not however doubt that the numbers are in all cases too 

 low. All they pretend to is as near an approach to truth as, under 

 existing circumstances, is possible. 



The illustrations are partly original, partly derived from other 

 authorities. It would have been more useful if a larger number 

 could have been introduced; but costly embellishments are not 

 possible beyond a certain limit. Should the present work be 

 favourably received, others may be inserted hereafter in the nu- 

 merous blanks that have been left among the pages. 



Finally, the artificial analysis of Orders given in former editions 

 has again been improved, and is now adapted to the volume in its 

 new di-ess. It is, however, no longer placed at the beginning of 

 the work, but will be found immediately before the indices. It 

 has been gratifying to the Author to know that this table is 

 habitually consulted by some of the most experienced Botanists. 



There is still another point in which the Author has endeavoured 

 to effect some improvement, and that is the nomenclature. Since 

 the days of Linnaeus, who was the great reformer of this part of 

 Natural History, a host of strange names, inharmonious, sesquipe- 

 dalian, or barbarous, have found their way into Botany, and by the 

 stern but almost indispensable laws of priority are retained there. 

 It is fun time, indeed, that some stop should be put to this torrent 

 of savage sounds, when we find such words as Calucechinus, Oresi- 

 genesa, Finaustrina, Kraschenninikovia, Gravenhorstia, Andrzejofs- 

 kya, Mielichoferia, Monactineirma, Pleuroschismatypus, and hun- 

 dreds of others like them, thrust into the records of Botany without 



