TO 



THE LADY FRANCES DOUGLAS. 



MADAM, 



IF the knowledge of the economy of vegetation 

 shall prove to be at all advanced or facilitated by the 

 arrangements or investigations instituted in the fol- 

 lowing Work, it is owing to the influence of your 

 Ladyship's counsel by which my attention was 

 originally directed to the study of plants. On this 

 account I have been solicitous to dedicate the Work 

 to your Ladyship, as well as on account of the op- 

 portunity it affords me of expressing myself in 

 acknowledgment of the kind patronage you have 

 hitherto been pleased to extend to me, and in com- 

 mendation of the laudable partiality you have always 

 shown to botanical pursuits. This I regard as ap- 

 pearing not merely in your own individual studies, 

 but in your directing the early studies of a young and 

 dear family, whose education you have so ably and 

 affectionately superintended, and whose incipient 



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