PREFACE xi 



is neither binomial, nor trinomial, but a sorry mixture of the Brie- 

 sonian, Catesbian and Linnaean systems. 



He names many "New Species" and varieties, not from the stand- 

 point of the systematist, but mayhap with the hope that this feature 

 would tempt his patrons in France to increase their orders for speci- 

 mens. 



As stated in the Preface of his book, the object of Young's publi- 

 cation was to acquaint gardeners and collectors of American plants 

 with the names of what were obtainable, their average size, general 

 appearance and the kind of soil and amount of moisture required 

 in their propagation. 



Nevertheless, in these hair-splitting days of the indoor naturalist, 

 we have no guarantee that some microscopic investigator will not 

 take a copy of this Reprint to his den and thereby shake the very 

 foundations of botanic priority! I have submitted the book to 

 several of our most prominent systematic botanists and zoologists in 

 the eastern United States and they all declare, that, from the sys- 

 tematic standpoint, it would be a great mistake to consider Young's 

 so-called novelties seriously. In nearly all cases they are no more 

 than nomina nuda, bare names, and, as such, cannot affect synonymy. 



In other respects, however, Young's Catalogue will claim the 

 interest of the antiquary and the historian. Resurrected from a 

 life-long oblivion of 132 years, it now assumes a significant place in 

 the early history of American Botany, and the meteoric career of 

 its obscure author, from an amateur collector of seeds and plants 

 under the guidance of Dr. Garden, to the post of Botanist to Queen 

 Charlotte of England, serves to heighten our interest in his celebrated 

 botanical contemporaries of the golden age of Bartram, Marshall, 

 Collinson, Fothergill, Ellis and Linnaeus. 



S. N. RHOADS, Haddonfield, N. J., Feb. 1, 1916. 



