PREFACE. XXm 



Fossil botany is dealt witli in section 66, and Local 

 Palaeobotany follows next. I have preferred to keep these 

 sections together rather than refer the subjects of section 57 

 to the latter part of the volume ; indeed, these sections stand 

 apart by themselves, and approximate to geology. Economic 

 Botany, Food and Forage Plants, Luxuries like Tea and 

 Tobacco, and Medicinal Plants follow ; then Forestry, and 

 Fibrous Plants and sundries, bring us to Poems on botanical 

 subjects, Almanacks, and Emblems. Instructions as to 

 gathering, preservation, and use of specimens, forms section 

 71, and that leads us to books of local importance. 



Beginning with Geographical Distribution in its world-wide 

 sense, we find Yoj^ages, or accounts of the productions of more 

 than one division of the globe. Local Floras are divided, first 

 into the great divisions of the world, Europe, Africa, America, 

 Asia, and Australia and Oceania. Following my usual rules, the 

 works in each division are arranged, (a) Complete floras of the 

 whole ; (b) Monographic floras of the whole, as for instance, the 

 Grasses of the country, passing from phanerogams to crypto- 

 gams, as set forth in the sections devoted to them ; (c) Complete 

 floras of partial areas, for example, the northern part of the 

 district ; finally, the separate local floras arranged alphabetically. 

 There is one marked exception to the alphabetic rule, namely, 

 Europe is put first, and Great Britain and Ireland, first of the 

 European States ; the rest follow from Austria to Switzerland, 

 the Arctic Regions forming a sort of No-mans-land. Greece 

 and Turkey are put into one section, as political events now 

 happening may soon alter the present division of territory ; 

 here also I have placed the south-eastern principalities like 

 Montenegro, simply as matter of convenience, so as not to 

 multiply sections without due cause. 



