DESIGN OF THE WORK. 55 



its name to be ascertained ; the places where it grows are described, 

 and if it be rare, the exact localities are speciJied ; every introduced 

 plant is described in the same manner, and a clue furnished to the 

 purely garden species. The latter consists in descriptions of every 

 family of plants which has representatives near Manchester, whether 

 wild or cultivated, together with a preliminary key to the families, 

 such as will enable them to be discovered in a few minutes. Under 

 every family comprising more than two or three species, there is given 

 a table, or analytical chart of its members, partly " artificial " and 

 partly " natural," placing the whole before the eye at one view. 

 These family charts form, along with the key, which is constructed on 

 the same principle, the great and novel feature of the volume. Every 

 expedient is made use of in them that will take the student promptly 

 to what he wants ; but his attention is still called to the inmost and 

 highest principles of Botany, which are never to be forgotten or 

 subordinated. The privilege of a teacher is no more to make his 

 subject intelligible and attractive, than to remember that all truth is of 

 royal blood, and its dignity never to be sacrificed or ignored. Few 

 are the plants in Manchester, gardens that belong to families not 

 included in the key ; few, indeed, are the wild ones anywhere in 

 England, so that although constructed specially with reference to the 

 Manchester Flora, its utility is by no means local. Nor is it to the 

 families only that it will prove* a ready guide. All wild species of 

 anomalous structure are introduced, and many also of the cultivated. 

 " Varieties," except in special cases, are omitted, as they are com- 

 prised in the character of the species. That the descriptions of the 

 families should be complete, enumerating all the minutiae of their 

 structure and exceptions, is not requisite in a work of this nature. 

 Sufficient particulars are given for the determination of Manchester 

 plants, and those who want what would have overloaded and encum- 

 bered the book, can easily get it from a Cyclopedia. Both the key 

 and the charts start from the structure of the Flower. Trees, how- 

 ever, affecting us chiefly in the summer and autumn, when their flowers 

 are gone, a second key is given for these, resting upon the pecu- 

 liarities of tlieir Leaves. 



Still further to facilitate the young botanist's pursuits, references 

 are made to three fine works in our Free Libraries, which contain 

 coloured drawings of English wild-flowers, viz., Curtis's Flora Londi- 

 nensis, in four volumes, folio ; Sowerby's English Botany, in thirty- 

 nine volumes, 8vo, including three of Supplement ; and Baxter's 



