PREFATORY NOTE. 



The collection of materials intended to serve as the basis of a work on 

 the Botany of California was begun under my direction, and with the author- 

 ization of the Legislature, in 1860. That the volume published in 1876 and 

 the present one could be laid before the scientific public in a style worthy 

 of the subject, and uniform with that of the other publications of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey, is chiefly due to the zeal and liberality of Hon. S. C. Hastings, 

 who solicited and obtained the necessary pecuniary means for tliis purpose. 

 His fellow-contributors for the present volume were D. 0. Mills, Henry 

 Pierce, Leland Stanford, J. C. Flood, and Charles Crocker, all of San Fran- 

 cisco : to them I desire to return my sincere thanks in behalf of botanists 

 throughout the world. 



J. D. WHITNEY. 



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