PRE] V.I i: i.v 



in which troublesome but necessary task he has been m< I u- 

 liallv assisted by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who furnished the lisl of 

 Fungals, and by Mr. Bentham, to whom he is indebted for th 

 of Leguminous and Labiate plants ami of Figworts. The reader 

 will perceive that according to the custom of Botanists the nan 

 of genera which the Author adopts, are printed in Roman Letl 

 and succeeded by others indented and printed in italics, 

 latter are either synonyms, or subgenera which d<» not at present 

 appear to be of importance enough to be regarded as true genera. 



In computing the number of specie-, attention has been paid 

 not only to published statements, but also to such appearances of 

 undescribed species as the Author's own herbarium indical 

 assisted occasionally by a little guess-work, where Natural Onl 



e not been recently examined with cart', or where specie- have 

 hi en notoriously founded upon trifling and unimportant character-, 

 i! does not however doubt that the numbers are in all cases too 

 low. All they pretend to i- a- near an approach to truth as, under 

 existing circumstances, i- possible. 



The illustrations are partly original, partly derived from other 

 authorities. It would have been more useful it' a larger number 

 could have been introduced; but costlv embellishments are not 

 possible beyond a certain limit. Should the present work be 

 favourably received, others maybe inserted hereafter in the nu- 

 merous blank- that have been left among the pages. 



Finally, the artificial analysis of Orders given in former editions 

 has again been improved, and is now adapted to the volume in its 

 new dress. It is, however, no longer placed at the beginning of 

 the work, but will be found immediately before the indices. I' 

 has been gratifying to the Author to know that this table is 

 habitually consulted by some of the most experienced Botanists. 



There is still another point in which the Author has endeavoured 

 to effect some improvement, and that is the nomenclature. Since 

 th-' days of Linmcii-, who was the great reformer of this part of 

 Natural History, a host of strange names, inharmonious, sesquipe- 

 dalian, or barbarous, have found their way into Botany, and by the 

 stern but almost indispensable law- of priority arc retained th< 

 It is full time, indeed, that some -top should be put to this torrent 



of savage sounds, when we find such word- a- Calucechinus, Or si- 

 genesa, Pinaustrina, KraschenninikoA ia. Gravenhorstia, Amb 

 kya, Mielichoferia, Monactineirma, Pleuroschismatypus, and hun- 

 dreds of others like them, thrust into the records of Botany without 



