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PREFACE. 



XV 



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gatioUj placed after the supposed specific name; 

 that olbers may be guided to a careful examiiia- 

 tion, before admitting as certain wbat I only 

 propose as probable. 



The Introductory Essay on the Geological Fea- 

 tures of the island, and the map and sections, will 

 probably be interesting to some persons^ and I 

 hope may not be deemed altogether foreign to 

 the principal object of tlic publication. 



The addition of the vernacnlar names is con- 

 fessedly intended for the benefit of those who arc 

 attached to botanical pursuits, but who mii;ht 



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find much difficulty and trouble in rccoanizi nir 



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individual plants by their generic and specific 

 characters alone. Anxious to promote the study 

 of botany in the West Indies, I have in this way 

 endeavoured to afford that assistance, which has 



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been so amply suppHed to the student in Britain. 

 Botany has not unfrcqucntly been represented 



as a ra.ere detail of verbal distinctions j but how 

 falsely has, I believe, been experienced by ail 



who have 



given much consideration to the 

 subject. It should rather be considered as a 

 science, which, Avhile it habituates the mind to 

 close observation and minute arrangement, tends 

 to meliorate the dispositions, and to fill the soul 

 with a grateful sense of the rational delight to 



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