PREFACE. 



This is the last of a series of botanical handbooks on 

 which I have been working for a long time. When I first came 

 to Kew, in January, 1866, I found the groups of plants that 

 enter largely into horticulture that most -wanted working at 

 were the Vascular Cryptogams and Petaloid Monocotyledons. 

 To those, consequently, during my connection with Kew, 

 I have paid special attention. First, as was agreed upon with 

 Sir Joseph Hooker when I was engaged as first-assistant in 

 the herbarium, I finished the ' Synopsis Filicum ' which 

 Sir William Hooker had planned out and commenced. This 

 was published in 1868, and a second edition, with a Supple- 

 ment, in 1874. In 1891 I contributed to the fifth volume of 

 the 'Annals of Botany' a classified index of the new species 

 discovered up to that date. This has now been issued 

 separately. In the Handbooks of the Fern Allies, Amar}^- 

 lideffi, Bromeliace^, and the present work, I have followed 

 the same concise general plan as in the Fern Synopsis. The 

 Liliacece are dealt with in greater detail in the ' Journal of the 

 Linnean Society.' The papers extend from the eleventh to 

 the eighteenth volume, and cover the whole order, with the 

 exception of the two large genera, Sniilax and AUium, which 

 have been monographed recently by M. Alphonse DeCandolle 

 and Dr. Von Eegel. Those who wish for full bibliographical 

 details about the species of Iridece will find them in a paper 



