Buckley, who had prepared it lor his own use ; but on 

 that I would publish the index, he offered to print it for me at nay 

 expense; I informed him that I was not so satisfied with the style 

 of his publications generally as to care to accept his liberal offer; I 

 had just then withdrawn my subscription to his "Floral Magazine" 

 in consequence of its ill-executed and exaggerated illustrations. 



If the publisher of "Curtis's Botanical Magazine," which has 

 been, and still might be a work of very great value, consulted his 

 real interests, and were more liberal, he would take care tbat the 

 illustrations were as well executed as those in the much cheaper 

 periodicals, the "Florist and Pomologist" and the "Garden;" and 

 if the editor would select plants worthy of illustration and give fuller 

 descriptions, especially of habit and culture, the magazine would lose 

 none of its scientific interest, and becoming much more popular, 

 the increased circulation would far more than compensate for the 

 increased outlay. As it is, the interest in the publication is limited 

 to botanists, and even some of these consider it now neither worthy 

 of its former position nor worth its price. 



Many years ago, when the work was edited by Sir W. J. Hooker, 

 the illustrations were better executed, and the plants illustrated were 

 generally interesting; now, when the processes of producing coloured 

 plates are far more perfect and much less coBtly, the illustrations are 

 inferior, and of plants which too often are mere weeds, neither useful 

 nor ornamental, while many plants of great interest and beauty 

 remain unillustrated. It were better if the editor and publisher had 

 some regard for the original description of the book in the title-pages 

 of the first two series, where it is stated that " the most ornamental 

 foreign plants cultivated in th. nj.m unaavl. tin <in<,i'h,,nsc, and the stoves 

 are accurately represented in their natural colours;" formerly, popular 

 names and explanations of the scientific names were given, now, both 

 are omitted, although the latter are becoming more mysterious and 

 untranslatable than ever. 



The general index of Latin Names is printed from Mr. Buckley's 

 MS.; to this, at the suggestion of Mr. E. W. Badger, the editor of 

 the "Midland Naturalist," I have added an index of Synonyms, compiled 

 by my daughters, and a short list of Popular Names. As botanists' 

 nomenclature is very curious and apparently limited by no rules, I 

 have occasionally in the first index taken some liberties with the 

 names ; for instance, words ending in -anthus are in the text sometimes 

 treated as masculine and sometimes feminine (it is difficult to under- 

 stand why they should be either, as the Greek word avOos is neuter, 



