4 PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. 



given in the introductory part, satisfactorily determine the 

 species of almost every flowering plant he may meet with in his 

 walks, and thus obtain a clue to all that is known respecting it. 

 This new edition has been carefully revised, and enriched by 

 the insertion of several species, so as to contain familiar descrip- 

 tions of all the indigenous Flowering Plants and Ferns of Great 

 Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands. Many little altera- 

 tions have been made, of which none however interfere in the 

 slightest degree with the original plan of the work, or tend to 

 detract from the simplicity of the descriptions. Additional 

 stations for many of the rarer species have been given, and 

 those plants which appear to have been originally introduced 

 from other countries, and in progress of time become natu- 

 ralized, or apparently wild, have been carefully distinguished 

 from such as are undoubtedly native. Such plants as have no 

 longer any claim to be reckoned as British, having disappeared 

 from the localities assigned them, and others whose introduc- 

 tion into the Flora has been the result of error, have been 

 omitted ; while many varieties, formerly considered specifically 

 distinct, are now reduced to their proper stations. 



W. MACGILLIVRAY. 



Edinburgh, October 15, 1840. 



OP the present Edition it is unnecessary to say more than 

 that it is carefully reprinted from the fifth, and contains at the 

 end an arrangement of the genera according to the natural 

 method. 



W. M C G. 

 Aberdeen, December 31, 1844. 



