PREFACE. 
Mr. Luxrorp, the able superintendent of the ‘ Phytologist,’ died, 
at his residence in Hill Street, Walworth, on Monday, the 12th of 
June, in the forty-eighth: year of his age. He was born at Sut- 
ton, in Surrey, on the 7th of April, 1807, but shortly removed to 
Reigate, where, at the early age of 11, he was placed under Mr. 
Allingham, a printer znd stationer. Mr. Allingham’s kindness, care 
and judgment, exercised for a period of sixteen years, tended mainly 
to the atiainment of that useful knowledge which Mr. Luxford eventu-. 
ally possessed. While with Mr. Allingham he not only mastered the 
printing business, but also gained an intimate acquaintance with the 
Greek, Latin and French languages, and a vast store of historical, 
geographical, literary and scientific information. Ata very early age 
he made Botany his favourite study, and the neighbourhood of Rei- 
gate was the field in which he devotedly pursuedit. In 1834 he 
removed to Birmingham, taking a situation in the engraving and 
printing establishment of Mr. Allen; and in 1837 he commenced 
business as a printer in Ratcliff Highway. ‘he next year he wrote, 
printed and published the ‘ Flora of Reigate, a work that bears ample 
testimony to the accuracy and extent of his botanical acquirements. 
In 1841 he commenced the ‘ Phytologist, superintendence over which 
he exercised up to the publication of the June number. In 1844 Mr. 
Luxford obtained employment on the ‘Globe’ newspaper, which, 
however, he relinquished in the following year, and took the sub- 
editorship of the ‘ Westminster Review,’ reading and revising the 
whole, and writing the shorter notices and occasionally the more 
important papers. In 1846 he obtained the Lectureship on Botany 
at St. Thomas’s Hospital. In 1851 he gave up both these engage- 
ments, and came to Devonshire Street, where he continued, as com- 
positor and reader, up to the time of his death. 
