PREFACE. 



This work originated in a desire, on the part of the Author, to 

 make his countrymen acquainted with the progress of Systematical 

 Botany abroad, during the previous quarter of a century. When it 

 first appeared, the science Mas so little studied that the very nan - 

 of some of the best writers on the subject were unfamiliar to 

 English cars. In our own language there was nothing whatever; 

 and the Natural System of arranging plants, although occasionally 

 mentioned as ;i something extremely interesting, was currently 

 regarded as the fond speculation of a lew men with more enthusiasm 

 than sound judgment; and this, too, was the opinion expressed by 

 persons who stood at the head of English Botany, in the estimation 

 of many British Naturalists. The Author had himself severely 

 experienced the want of some guide to this branch of Natural 

 History, and he felt anxious to relieve others from the income- 

 nience which he had encountered; the more especially after he had 

 undertaken the responsibility of tilling the Botanical Chair in the 

 then London University. At that time, too, there was nothing of 

 foreign origin which could be advantageously consulted ; for Bart- 

 ling's Ordines had not reached England, PerleVs Lehrbuch ^ - 

 unknown, and both it and Agardh's Classes -were of too slight a 

 texture to be generally useful to any except Botanists themselv< s. 



The importance of the Natural System in a practical country 

 like Great Britain was too manifest to leave any doubt in the 

 mind of the Author that the good sense of his country men would 

 lead to its universal reception when once placed within their reach. 

 Nor has he been disappointed. Fifteen years have sufficed to ren- 

 der the once popular, but superficial and useless, system of Linnaeus 

 a mere matter of history. Fktit Ilium. 



