[May, 1859.] 129 



CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 

 Introduction. 



" In a work intended to exhibit the progress of the science ui England, and to 

 assign to each Writer his respective praise, I could have wished to have subjoined a 

 complete catalogvie of all the Enghsh plants, with the names of the first discoverer 

 annexed, or of tliat author in whose work each first occurs, as an Enghsh species. 

 The progress I had made in the intended Pinax above-mentioned, would have 

 enabled me to have made this addition ; but as such a catalogue could have afforded 

 gratification only to the more cu.rious and ci'itical botanists, ... it was judged most 

 proper to omit it." — From the Preface to Dr. Pulteney's Sistorical and Biogra- 

 phical Sketches of the Progress of Botany in Evgland, pp. 15, 16. 



The above quotation, from the only English work descriptive 

 of the historical progress of this science in England^ will suffi- 

 ciently explain the nature and object of the following chapters on 

 British Botany. To each writer will be assigned his respective 

 share in the merits due to the united or entire band of botanists, 

 from the times of William Turner, who was both a theologian as 

 well as a naturalist, to the more enlightened times in which we 

 live. 



The botanists of Great Britain may honestly be congratulated 

 on the extent, variety, and excellence of the literature devoted to 

 their special science. From the commencement of the sixteenth 

 century, when Dr. Lynacre published what he calls a translation 

 of Macer, to the present time, a period of three centuries and a 

 half, books on this subject have been produced; and they would 

 now form, if collected, a not inconsiderable library. 



The British Floras are numerous and, compared with similar 

 works in other countries, are, to say the very least, of average 

 merit. The local or county Floras are of surpassing excel- 

 lence. 



Dr. Pulteney's work, modestly entitled ' Sketches of the Pro- 

 gress of Botany in England,' brings down the history of what 

 had been previously accomplished, only to the middle of the last 

 century. And the most interesting part of his work, viz. his 

 " British Pinax," was left unpublished, because his, unfortunately, 

 was a non-critical or an incurious age, which did not relish, and 

 therefore gave no encouragement to, such investigations. 



The following chapters will not only contain a complete 

 history of the literature of British Botanjr, from the earliest 



N. S. VOL. III. s 



