INTRODUCTION. 
families, however, such a system would be intolerably annoying to 
the reader ; all the greatest races follow their due alphabetical 
sequence. With some of the smaller ones, however, such as Tulipa 
and the New Zealand Veronicas, I have taken the species in 
their botanical order. For this reason : that a botanically-arranged 
family is all in a “ concatenation according,” like following like, 
_and leading on through a divergency to the next marked difference 
in shape or habit. So that instead of saying “ Veronica salicornio- 
eides differs from V. lycopodioeides in such and such a detail,” thus 
necessitating either an exhaustive restatement by the writer, or 
a tedious cross-reference by the reader, one has the two species 
as links in a continuous chain, close together, and thus rapidly 
differentiated as members of a group, leading on from another 
towards the next in a clear and ordered sequence. I have tried, 
too, here and there, to give indications of pronunciation, in the 
case of the more difficult names, though I see no reason to insult 
my readers with suggestions as to how they shall say Geum, 
Gentiana, and such-like. At the same time there is nowadays 
really no reason why Gladidlus, Gladidlus, Saxifraga, Pentstémon, 
Androsacé, and Erica ”’ should still be allowed to stand up, like 
dark islets of ignorance, above the pervasive widening flood of 
modern education. To make matters yet easier, I have invariably 
preserved the Greek “ ei ” diphthong, instead of letting it sink into 
“i” after the quite incomprehensible fashion of botanical spelling, 
which is the true “ fautrix and nourrisse ”’ (like Anne Boleyn of 
heresy) of such ghastly cacophonies as Erica for Ereica, Eye-zoon 
for Aeizodn, and Eye-zoydes for Aeizoeides. Surely if they see 
Ereica written, and Aeizoon, even the least experienced gardeners 
will easily learn to say Ereica and Aeizo6n. It is just as simple to 
say a word right as to say it wrong, nor can I see any reason why 
catalogues and books of botany should not, for the future, help 
to propagate correctness by restoring the Greek diphthong in “ ei ” 
to its proper spelling, so that no one ever again will have any 
excuse for pronouncing it as if it were merely a short Latin “ 1.” 
But in time, yet another strand of purpose came by degrees 
to be woven into the fabric of this compilation, for it gra- 
XXili 
