PREFACE 



The task of writing a continuation of Sachs' History 

 of Botany, which was three years ago entrusted to me 

 by the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, has been 

 a particularly onerous though very agreeable one, and 

 it is with considerable diffidence that I submit this 

 supplementary volume to the criticism of my colleagues 

 and fellow workers in botanical science. The difficulties 

 attending its production have not been minimized by 

 the reflection that no doubt each of them has his own 

 conception of what such a continuation ought to be, 

 and of the manner in which it should be planned. 

 I have thought it best to adhere as closely as I could 

 to the lines on which Sachs founded the original work, 

 though I cannot but feel that I have no right to claim 

 that this is undeniably the best method. The difficulty 

 of dealing with an almost innumerable number of 

 memoirs instead of with a few great works, may well in 

 the opinion of many have called for different handling. 

 On such a point I do not wish to dogmatize. I have 

 tried, while adhering to Sachs' main lines of treatment, 

 to show what has been the trend of thought in the 

 different sections into which he divided the subject, 

 and have been compelled by the great amount of 

 literature to select for notice what have seemed to 

 me the leading memoirs. There may be differences of 



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