PREFACE 



In the preparation of this work my indebtedness lay in many 

 directions. The circumstances of my life enabled me to 

 devote all my time to it, a very important condition for 

 extensive original investigation. Then, in connection with 

 West Indian plants, with which these pages are principally 

 concerned, there was always in my hand Grisebach's Flora 

 of the British West Indian Islands ^ the only accessible 

 general work on the plants of those regions. Most of the 

 German botanical works consulted were in English dress ; 

 but amongst the exceptions was Nobbe's Handhich der 

 Samenkunde^ a work essential for me to be familiar with, 

 and I am deeply indebted to my wife for her assistance in 

 mastering its contents. 



Then, again, as I rambled about on the coasts and in the 

 inland woods of the West Indian Islands, or sat quietly 

 working in my study at home, or lay in my cabin during 

 the voyages to and fro across the Atlantic, ideas came floating 

 through my mind which often took solid form and developed 

 into lines of investigation before unsuspected. Some of them 

 may have been echoes of my reading. For instance, from a 

 recent re-perusal of Professor F. W. Oliver's address to the 

 Botanical Section of the British Association in 1906, I find 

 that 1 have unwittingly supplied answers to more than one 

 of his suggestive queries. But there are other ideas that 

 cannot be explained in this fashion, and they also have 

 solidified and stand out boldly in the following pages. Amongst 

 the sources to which I owe much, they are not the least. 



