PREFACE. ai 



Vegetables, according to Linnaeus, are primarily 

 divisible into three parts. 1. The Root. 2. The 

 herb or plant itself. 3. The fructification, And in 

 this order these parts might have been treated, were 

 it not on account of the Sexual System ; but as the 

 explanation of the latter was the principal object of 

 this work, it became necessary to give up the or- 

 der of the parts of the vegetable, and follow that of 

 the system. 



The System is divided, into 1. Classes. 2. Orders. 

 3. Genera. 4. Species. 5. Varieties. Now as 

 tlpe Classes, Orders, and Genera, which come first 

 in the System, are established on the fructification 

 alone, it became necessary to give this part of the 

 vegetable the preference in point of order ; and 

 we have accordingly made the fructification the 

 subject of the several chapters of the first part of 

 this work. 



In the second Part, we have given a full expla- 

 nation of the Classes, Orders, and Genera of the 

 System ; which indeed contain the whole theore- 

 tic part of it, the doctrines of species and va- 

 rieties having, as Linnaeus observes, a greater re- 

 lation to the practice. The reason for proceeding 

 to the System immediately after the fructification 

 is manifest ; as the theory of the System is esta- 

 blished on the fructification alone, an account of the 

 latter was all that was necessary to prepare the read- 

 er for understanding the explanation of the former, 

 which, as has been said, was the principal object of 

 the work. 



In the third and last Part, the two remaining 

 parts of the vegetable, viz. the root and herb, are 

 treated of : and as these chiefly furnish the doc- 

 trines that respect the two last divisions of the Sys- 

 tem, viz. species and varieties, so these doctrines 

 are also included in this third Part, and make the 

 conclusion of the work. 



The 



