ADVERTISEMENT. 



THE Proprietors take this opportunity of explaining the circumstances under which 

 they find themselves reluctantly obliged to close the Work at its present stage. At 

 the commencement of the undertaking the Editor arranged with them to complete it 

 in Four Volumes ; but when the present or fourth volume was printed, he informed 

 them for the first time, to their surprise, that his materials had proved so much more 

 voluminous than he anticipated, that the descriptions of the remaining plants would 



fill more than two additional volumes of the same extent. They are compelled to 



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add, that the circulation of the Work has hitherto been too limited to afford them any 

 prospect of reimbursement of the large additional expense which would be incurred if 

 they proceeded to complete the Work ; an expense which they had not originally 

 contemplated. As, however, the Work has been compiled upon the Natural 

 System, the description of that division of the science which is contained in the 

 four published volumes is complete, and the volumes are consequently not, 

 in this respect, rendered imperfect by the absence of the remaining two, since 

 they contain a complete account of the Dichlamydeous plants. In justice to the 

 Editor they feel bound to add, that he has spared no labour to render the Work as 

 comprehensive and perfect as possible ; and they are confident that no publication has 

 hitherto appeared in this country which contains nearly so large a compass of valuable 

 information upon that division of Botany of which it treats. They can only account 

 for the confined circulation which the present Work has hitherto met with in the altered 

 taste of the day for treatises of a less recondite and extensive nature. 



The Proprietors would be ready to complete the Work if they could hope for 



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