PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 
oa oo ——— 
Ir was the wish of my late friend, the author of the ‘Genera 
of South African Plants,’ * that I should after his decease edit 
the materials he had prepared for a Second Edition of that 
work. These materials embraced descriptions of the genera 
of the principal families of flowering plants, except the 
Graminee, which were left in a very incomplete state, and the 
Restiacee, which were untouched ; and there were also left a 
few other small families to be worked up, together with the 
tables of the Natural Orders, and keys, etc. The Graminee 
have been kindly completed by an intimate friend of Dr. Har- 
vey and myself,—Gernrrat Munro, C.B.; and the festiacee 
by my friend Dr. Masrers. I have also thought it right to 
add the genera of Ferns (for the descriptions of which I am 
indebted to Mr. J. G. Baxer) and of the allied small Orders. 
It was not Dr. Harvey’s intention to have (as in the First 
Edition) included the other Orders of Cryptogams ; of these 
little was known in 1838, whereas now, in 1868, owing greatly 
to his own exertions, especially amongst the Mosses and Algae, 
the number of known South African genera possibly rivals 
* Published in 1838, at Cape Town, where the author (then in his 
twenty-eighth year) held the appointment of Colonial Treasurer. 
