X PREFACE. 



Part is devoted to the Natural Arrangement a : and here I may 

 claim the merit of being the first who has made such an attempt 

 with the indigenous plants. This section begins with the Crypto- 

 gamia, which in the Linnean system immediately follows the 23d 

 class, or the last included in the first part of the work, and which 

 may thus be said to occupy its right place, whichever method 

 may be followed by the student. In the Cryptogamous or 

 Acotyledonous plants, observations are frequently added to the 

 synonyms and habitats ; but in the other two classes which cor- 

 respond with the 23 Linnean classes, treated of in the foregoing 

 part of the Flora, it has been desirable to exclude all remarks 

 and particular stations, and refer for these to the First Part. In 

 all this, my aim has uniformly been to avoid the inconvenience 

 and the expense of a large book. Could the whole have been 

 comprised in a still smaller compass, it would have been my wish 

 that it should have been so; but to have acquired brevity at the 

 expense of clearness would have been no benefit to those who may 

 use this work, and would have been an obvious failure in my own 

 object. 



Glasgow, 10//i April, 1821. 



a In collecting the characters given of a large proportion of the natural 

 orders ; indeed, of all, with the exception of the Acotyledones, it is with much 

 pleasure that I acknowledge the able and willing assistance that has been 

 rendered me by my friend J. Lindley, Esq. That part must be considered 

 as a joint production, and we alike claim the merit, or are responsible for the 

 defects, which it may be found to contain. Of any thing original, however, 

 as to matter, little can be attributed to ourselves ; the difficulty has been to 

 select with care from materials which lie scattered in the various productions 

 and memoirs of Linnaeus, Jussieu, Decandolle, Mirbel, Richard, and lastly, 

 though among the very first in point of value, those of our learned country- 

 man, Mr. Brown. But it must be observed, that although the name of some 

 author is in most instances added to the characters of the orders, we never- 

 theless have used our discretion in altering those characters so as to make 

 them suit our purpose. For by genei'ally omitting such distinctions as only 

 apply to extra European genera, we flatter ourselves that the subject 

 has become considerably simplified, without any disadvantage to the stu- 

 dent. In those cases where no name is cited we must be considered as 

 wholly responsible. 



