PREFACE. Vll 



Systematic Botany, the author would remark,, that the 

 reasons which have induced him to prefer the Natural 

 System to the Linnsean, the latter having been hitherto 

 almost universally employed in elementary treatises on 

 Botany will be found fully stated in Chapter XIII. He 

 has not aimed to give an account of every order, since 

 this would have been of very little use to the beginner. 

 In making a selection, he has regarded those as having 

 the best claim to notice, which contain plants of the 

 greatest importance to man, or which present some re- 

 markable peculiarities of structure or habit ; a few have 

 been introduced, however, which possess neither of these 

 distinctions, either as containing well-known British 

 plants, or on account of their great abundance in parti- 

 cular spots of the globe. The Cryptogamia have not been 

 treated of in this, division of the work, since a general 

 view of their chief groups is contained in Chapter II., 

 and further details would not have possessed sufficient 

 interest for the unscientific reader. 



For various reasons, he has thought it best to adopt the 

 system of De Candolle, as being the one most in use at 

 the present time ; but he has derived great assistance from 

 the systematic works of Dr. Lindley, and especially from 

 the useful but expensive " Ladies' Botany " of that 



