INTRODUCTION. 



IN consequence of the increasing demand which has for some time existed for standard works 

 upon BOTANY, HORTICULTURE, and AGRICULTURE, occasioned by the growing taste of the 

 age for the study of these sciences, the proprietors of " MILLER'S GARDENER'S AND 

 BOTANIST'S DICTIONARY" have caused to be prepared the " GENERAL SYSTEM OF GAR- 

 DENING AND BOTANY" contained in the following pages, which, together with the infor- 

 mation comprised in the DICTIONARY of MILLER, will combine the improvements and dis- 

 coveries which the labours of modern writers have so amply contributed to the advancement 

 of these sciences. 



IN the formation of this work it was found necessary to deviate from the alpha- 

 betical arrangement adopted in the Dictionary of MILLER, in consequence of the numerous 

 and almost daily changes which have taken place in the Botanical Nomenclature of late 

 years, which have rendered that arrangement wholly useless as a mode of reference. It 

 only remained, therefore, to choose between the Linnaean artificial method, and the Natural 

 System of Jussieu ; but the numerous advantages of the latter, particularly in an extensive 

 work like the present, were too apparent to leave any doubt in the mind of the Editor 

 as to which he ought to adopt. In a work, professedly intended to form a Complete 

 System of Vegetables, including the practical parts of Gardening and Agriculture, that 

 plan of arrangement must undoubtedly be the best which brings under one view the genera 

 and species of plants according to their relations of affinity, and therefore of their pro- 

 perties. In the Linnaean artificial method, it often happens, that genera, intimately related, 

 are separated far apart into different classes and orders, merely on account of the difference 

 in the number of their stamens and pistils; a circumstance now found in many instances 

 scarcely to be of sufficient importance, even to separate species, still less genera ; and with 

 regard to an alphabetical arrangement, it must be evident to every one conversant with the sub- 

 ject, that it cannot be employed with advantage in any branch of Natural History. The plan 

 of the present work is founded on that of M. de Candolle, in his invaluable works entitled 

 Regni Vegetabilis Systema Naturale and Prodromus, with such alterations as were rendered 

 necessary by the rapid increase of science, and with numerous additions of new genera and 

 species, amounting to more than a third of those enumerated by that learned botanist ; so that, 

 when finished, the work will be found to be the most complete system of Vegetables yet 



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