PREFACE 



THE FIFTH EDITION, 



THE success which has attended the attempt made by the 

 Editor of this work, to facilitate the acquisition of a knowledge 

 of British plants, sufficiently shows the advantage of divesting 

 descriptions of natural objects of all unnecessary technicalities, 

 and especially of employing generally intelligible terms in pre- 

 ference to those of which the meaning is obscure. The sale of 

 more than ten thousand copies seems to authorize a belief that 

 the work has been found useful, while it also shows that Botany 

 may now be fairly classed among the branches of popular edu- 

 cation. It is even a matter of some exultation, that while the 

 teachers of the higher seminaries of learning have recommended 

 manuals either of their own or of their friends, it should yet 

 have found its way among their pupils, to many of whom, and 

 especially to students of medicine, its simplicity and perspicuity 

 have rendered it acceptable. On the other hand, individuals 

 living in remote parts of the country, and entirely removed 

 from intercourse with others addicted to similar pursuits, have, 

 with the sole aid of this manual, acquired no inconsiderable 

 amount of botanical knowledge, and thus greatly enlarged their 

 sources of innocent and healthy enjoyment. Several remark- 

 able instances of this have unexpectedly come to the knowledge 

 of the Editor, who can boast of pupils even in the wilds of 

 Sutherland, Shetland, and the Outer Hebrides. It is not there- 

 fore inconsistent with truth to assert, that any person unac- 

 quainted with the subject, may, by attending to the directions 



