viix PREFACE. 



The Englifh names affixed to the greater part 

 of the plants, will make it more eafy to the com- 

 mon people to know and to ufe them, bring the 

 fcience more down even to the lowed capacities^ 

 fix the hitherto vague and multifarious denomina- 

 tions of plants in various parts of America, and 

 obviate that confufion and drynefs ah-eady too com- 

 mon in the ftudy of that ufeful branch of know- 

 ledge. 



Loefling\ defcriptions of the SpaniHa and South 

 American plants are the only things in his journal 

 which deferve the attention of a curious reader •, the 

 letters publifhed along with them in the Swedifh^ 

 are compliments of a grateful pupil to his tutor, 

 and queries and duhia relative to botany, and there- 

 fore not worth a tranflation. The Englifh public 

 has now all the voyages and publications of the 

 Linnasan fchool ; Hojfelquijly OJbecky Toreen^ Kalm^ 

 and Leefling make the whole of them. 



The French word outarde fignifies commonly a 

 huftard^ but in North America they give that nama 

 to a kind of geefe, which I therefore beg to cor- 

 real, vol. i. p. 96. ; having but lately got an in- 

 formation about it, from a gentleman who is juft 

 returned from North America. 



The Sardhies mentioned vol. i. p. 1. are not, as 

 1 have fufpeded in the note, the pilchards^ fo com- 

 mon on our weftern coaRs ; but a kind of herring, 

 not yet defcribcd, peculiar to the neighbourhood 

 of Bdk-Jf^e^ and the coaft of French Brctanyo 



