PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 



It was the wisli of my late friend, tlie autlior of the ' G-enera 

 of South African Plants,' * that I should after his decease etlit 

 the materials he had prepared for a Second Edition of that 

 work. These materials embraced descriptions of the genera 

 of the principal families of flowering plants, except the 

 Gramineoi, which were left in a very incomplete state, and the 

 Besfiacece, which were untouched ; and there were also left a 

 few other small families to be w^orked up, together with the 

 tables of the Natural Orders, and keys, etc. The Graminea' 

 have been kindly completed by an intimate friend of Dr. Hae- 

 VET and myself, — GtENERAL Muneo, C.B. ; and the Bestiacece 

 by my friend De. Mastees. I have also thought it right to 

 add the genera of Ferns (for the descriptions of which I am 

 indebted to Mr. J. G. Bakee) and of the allied small Orders. 

 It was not De. Hae vet's intention to have (as in the First 

 Edition) included the other Orders of Cryptogams ; of these 

 little was known in 1838, whereas now, in 1868, owing greatly 

 to his own exertions, especially amongst the Mosses and Algrp, 

 the number of known South African genera possibly rivals 



* Publislied in 1838, at Cape Town, where the author (then in his 

 twenty-eighth year) held the appointment of Colonial Treasurer. 



