viii INTBODUCTION. 



at least haviiii: been laid before them. Tliis is the chief consideration 

 which has led us to be<^in thus early the publication of this Natural 

 Il'ishrii of Plants. It needed no doubt a fuller maturity ; and the 

 task is one that a botanist well inured to all the difficulties of the 

 science would be fit to accomplish only at the end of a long career. 

 Accordins^ly, to remedy our incompetence, the existence of which we 

 have never concealed from ourselves, we have tried during eight years 

 of assiduous labour to become familiar with the numerous works pub- 

 lished on the diflerent parts of the Vegetable Kingdom ; we have 

 analyzed most of the genera of plants found in the large collections 

 of Europe, prepared numerous drawings, and have quintupled the 

 number of cuts left by Payer. Only when materials have been 

 wanting for the direct observation of the types have we confined 

 ourselves to reproducing the characters given by other authors, leaving 

 them all the merit and all the responsibility. But whenever facts 

 are given without indicating any source from which they are drawn, 

 we have made out from nature what we have described. Before 

 beginning this exposition we must explain the general plan followed 

 in the work. 



The orders of plants are described successively, each being nearly 

 always divided into a certain number of series, which often, though, 

 as will be seen, not invariabl}'', correspond with what most authors 

 call tribes. Each series begins by the detailed study of a leading 

 type, whose characters are described and figured as completely as 

 possible, but only with reference to the more important features. 

 This description, precise, though summarized, and sufficient, despite 

 its very elementary form, for the beginner or the reader who does not 

 care to go deeper into the subject or to verify all its details, is 

 printed in large type in the text. The more special details, the 

 characters of secondary importance, the historical and bibliographical 

 references which enable the professional botanist to check our 

 observations and start afresh on further inquiries from the point 

 at which we stop, — all these are found in small text in notes at the 

 bottom of each page, which, of course, no one is obliged to read. 



After describing the genera in series, we give a summary of the 

 history of the order, its affinities and geographical distribution ; 



