INTRODUCTION. IX 



Lyonet acquired at least as mucli honour, and rendered as great 

 service to mankind by his intimate acquaintance with the ana- 

 tomy and functions of the organs of a single caterpillar, as if he 

 had spent his life in arranging all the known insects of the 

 world according to a new and Natural System. The Linneeaii 

 Method, as a late writer in the '' Jlagazine of Nat. History" has 

 well observed, is not opposed to that of Jussieu or De Candolle, 

 " but is rather an easy and pleasing preface or index to their 

 more extended inquiries." 



Let it not be supposed that the author is advocating the cause 

 of an Artificial System, to the exclusion of a natural one ; for 

 if any one can be more alive than another to the real advantage 

 derivable from a knowledge of the characters of plants when 

 naturally combined, it is assuredly he, M'hose duty it is to teach 

 the Science to those who are destined for the profession of 

 medicine. The former method will soon enable the student to 

 ascertain the Foxglove, the Cinchona, the Squill, and many 

 other plants of which he would be ashamed to be ignorant: but 

 the study of the latter will alone put it in his power to extend 

 his inquiries, and with a prospect of success, to analyze other 

 plants of the same Natural Order, among which he may expect 

 to find similar or more powerful principles than what are hither- 

 to known to us. This subject lays open a wide field of use- 

 fulness to the Botanist and the Physician ; and with the view 

 to so desirable an object, the name of the Natural Order to 

 which each Genus belongs is mentioned in the following pages ; 

 and in the Appendix will be found a complete list with char- 

 acters of all the Orders, so far as British Botany is concerned, 

 together with an enumeration of the Genera belonging to them, 

 and references to the pages of the present volume, where the 

 genera and species are described ; to these are added brief no- 

 tices of other Orders of foreign countries, which are remarkable 

 for the useful or interesting plants they contain. To those who 

 Avish for fuller information respecting the natural affinities of 

 Plants, especially as concerns universal Botany, the following 

 works may be studied with advantage : Dr Lindley's " Intro- 

 duction to Botany," and his " Natural System of Botany," Mr 

 Arnott's " Treatise on the Natural Arrangement of Plants" under 

 the article " Botany," in the 5th vol. of the 7th edition of the 

 Eticyclopcedia Britaimica ; and the 7th and last edition of Sir 



