PREFACE. 



THE science of Botany, from a rude and uncultivated 

 arrangement of its elements, has of late years, been 

 brought to assume considerable authority on general 

 attention. The paths for its cultivation have been 

 studiously displayed, and every enticement held in view, 

 to invite the enquiring naturalists, to seek a few hours 

 recreation, in its splendid offerings of fundamental truth 

 and natural philosophy. Its study is no longer a 

 labyrinth in which even men of learning might be lost ; 

 but its former clouds of confusion and error, have been 

 gradually dispersed by the patient researches of nume- 

 rous disciples, and the variable banquet is now open to 

 all who are anxious for a familiar acquaintance with the 

 works of nature. 



It must not be thought, however, that a knowledge of 

 the vegetable kingdom is to be acquired, without a 

 regular attention to the rudiments on which natural and 

 systematic botany are established. It is a study, which 

 must continue to be nursed with innumerable techni 

 calities, and it is only by patient perseverance, you car 



