^^^ YORK 

 BOTANICAL 



PREFACE TO 1899 EDITION. 



Anne Pratt's " Flowering Plants, Grasses and Ferns " has been so long 

 before the public as to have become the standard popular work upon the 

 British Flora. A preface to a new edition may therefore appear to be 

 altogether superfluous ; yet the Publishers and the present Editor deem it 

 right to explain in a general way to what extent the revision has affected 

 the work as it left the author's hands. 



The normal advance in botanical knowledge made revision necessary, 

 but it was decided that the work should remain Anne Pratt's : therefore 

 the system of classification and, with few exceptions, the names of species 

 have been retained as in previous editions. Many corrections of a minute 

 character have been made, descriptions of a number of species formerly 

 lacking have been added, and others have been amplified in accordance with 

 our increased knowledge. On the other side, some paragraphs, not particu- 

 larly relevant, have been cut out, and the same fate has befallen such of the 

 poetical quotations as appeared to be no longer appropriate. But all such 

 changes have been made reverently, and with the desire to do no violence to 

 the spirit of the original wox'k. 



Two new plates of species of Ranunculacese and Violaceae have been 

 added, and the diagrammatic plate of previous editions, illustrating the 

 terms used, has been superseded by four tinted plates, giving new drawings 

 on a larger scale of all the terms previously illustrated. All the coloured 

 plates have been specially compared for this edition with the carefully hand- 

 coloured originals ; and the colour-printing has been thereby improved. 



