that work (v. p. 1037 reverse,) thereby, as we conceive, adopting his opinions, as to the characters to be 
resorted to in determining the genera of Scitiminee. I am sensible that I may be charged with presumption 
in thus opposing my opinion to that of Botanists of the first rank of the present day; but having devoted 
a considerable time to the study of this particular tribe of plants, and having had: an opportunity for nearly 
thirty years of examining the largest collection of them ever perhaps formed within the limits of Europe, I 
have ventured to lay before the public the result of my inquiries; without however presuming to compete 
with those distinguished individuals, who by the devotion of a greater portion of their lives to this study, 
and by their acknowledged talents have obtained a degree of knowledge on this subject commensurate with 
the magnitude of the science to which they have devoted themselves with such success. 
I cannot dismiss the present publication, the impression of which has been limited to 150 copies, 
without expressing my obligations for many favours conferred on me in the course of my work. Of the 
pleasure I should have had in performing this duty, I have, however, in one instance been deprived by the 
lamented death of that great promoter of true Botanical Science, and my ever esteemed and highly respected 
friend Sir James Edward Smith, President of the Linnean Society, with whom I have enjoyed many years 
of literary communion and unbroken friendship, the memory of which will never be effaced from my mind— 
an event which has occurred precisely at the period, when I should have had an opportunity of expressing 
in public my obligations to him, for his numerous and valuable suggestions to me in the course of my 
present undertaking, but which I am happy to reflect did not happen, till he had been enabled to terminate 
his great work of the English Flora, a work which has perfected the system of English Botany as_ far 
as present discoveries admit, and has, together with his other learned writings, conferred upon its Author 
a name and station which will remain pre-eminent as long as the science itself exists. For great assistance 
afforded me in the course of the present work, as well for specimens of various rare and curious plants, 
as for the information communicated to me in their highly valued and instructive correspondence, my grateful 
thanks are due to the Rev. Dr. Carey, of Serampore, and to Dr. N. Wallich, Superintendant of the Botanic 
Garden at Calcutta, joint Editors of the late Dr. Roxburgh’s Flora Indica. I have also to acknowledge 
my numerous obligations to Charles Stuart Parker, Esq. of Liverpool, who in an excursion to several of 
the West India Islands, and to the Tropical portion of the Continent of America in the year 1825, obtained 
many rare and valuable plants, several of which had been found and figured upwards of a century ago by 
Plumier, and some of which have since been published by the elder Jacquin in his Fragmenta, but without 
having been referred by him to their proper genera. The state and condition in which Mr. Parker has 
preserved these plants have enabled me, by his. assistance, and descriptions of them in a growing state, to 
give the accurate representation of them, which will be found in the following work. To the Right 
Honourable the Earl of Mountnorris, I am indebted for several drawings of coloured figures of Scitaminean 
Plants made from living specimens, some of which have not yet been introduced into this country, by native 
Artists at Lucnow, and obtained by his Lordship on his travels through India; for the use of which I 
have returned my more particular thanks to his Lordship in the course of my work. In like manner my 
acknowledgments are due to the Right Honourable Lord Stanley, now President of the Linnzean Society, whose 
collection of coloured drawings of exotic plants, both of the East and West Indies, contains several fine 
specimens of Scitamineze, some of - which, by his Lordship’s obliging permission, are given in the ensuing 
~ work. My particular thanks are also due to Robert Barclay, Esq. of Bury Hill, to Wm. Jackson Hooker, 
LL.D. F.RS. &c. to Robert Graham, M.D. Professor of Botany, Edinburgh, to Robert Kaye Greville, 
LL.D. F.R.S. &c. for many favours conferred upon me, which I have more fully acknowledged on various 
occasions. In addition to these my thanks are also due, for obligations of different kinds conferred on me 
in the course of my work, to the Rev. James Yates. M.A. of London, Richard Harrison, Esq. of Aigburgh, 
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