PREFACE. 
Siscs the publication of the Dissertation on such 
species of the Linnean genus Saxifraga in the 
year 1803, as the author up to that period had 
seen alive, or found cultivated in the gardens of 
England; our knowledge coneerning that intri- 
cate genus and the genera allied to it, has been 
much augmented, both by the discovery of new 
species, and by further information concerning 
those already recorded. — ^ 
In the Dissertation of 1903, a promise was held 
out, that it would probably be extended at some 
future and more favourable period to the remain- 
ing Saxifragee, although they might not be culti- 
vated in the gardens of England. That time has 
at length arrived; and that promise is in the fol- 
lowing pages more than fulfilled ; the present essay 
extending itself quite through Saxifraga, to the 
remaining genera of the Saxifragéan Order, with 
the exception only of the frutescent and arbores- 
cent genera of Hydrangea, Weinmannia, aud Cu- 
nonia; temporari REO to it ke ud but 
