PKEFACE. 



WHEN revising the fourth edition of my late friend's " Hand- 

 book of the British Flora," I abstained from making other 

 additions or alterations than appeared to me to be absolutely 

 necessary, and consistent with the object of the work, which 

 is, as stated in the title-page, "for the use of beginners and 

 imateurs." In the Preface to the first, 1858, but in no sub- 

 sequent edition, Mr. Bentham explained his motives for pre- 

 senting his work to the public, and the method he followed 

 in preparing it : and inasmuch as he therein gives his reasons 

 for adopting a different treatment of British plants from 

 what obtains in other works devoted to our native Flora, it 

 appears to me to be expedient, now that the editorship has 

 passed into other hands, to repeat what he there says in his 

 own words : 



" In adding to the number of British Floras already before 

 the public, it is not attempted to enter into competition with 

 either of the standard scientific works whose merits have been 

 tested through several successive editions. The Author's 

 object has been rather to supply a deficiency which he believes 

 has been much felt. He has been frequently applied to, to 

 recommend a work which should enable persons having no 

 previous knowledge of Botany to name the wild flowers they 

 might gather in their country rambles. He has always been 

 much embarrassed how to answer this inquiry. The book he 

 had himsell used under similar circumstances in a foreign 

 country, the 'Flore Franchise' of De Candolle, is inapplicable 

 to Britain, and has long been out of print even in the country 



