PREFACE. XVll 



rous places of growth, of the less common plants, 

 have been added, and several new species intro- 

 duced. I know but of one essential fault in the 

 original plan of this work, and that is much lessened 

 in the third edition, the compilation of descriptions 

 from foreign authors, which do not always belong 

 to our plants. Nevertheless, as Dr. Withering in- 

 variably mentions the sources from whence he has 

 borrowed, no reader can necessarily be misled. 



An English book, to the language of which I have 

 always been partial, is the " Outlines of the Natural 

 History of Great Britain and Ireland, by John Berk- 

 enbout, M.D.," published in 1770, in three volumes, 

 the second comprehending the Vegetable Kingdom. 

 It is without synonyms, but the short characters are 

 clear and expressive. This work, however, is super- 

 seded by Withering s. A second edition, under the 

 title of a Synopsis, in two volumes, appeared in 1789. 



It is scarcely necessary to mention Stephen Rob- 

 son's British Flora, printed at York in 1777, with three 

 plates ; the Enchiridion Botanicwn, a concise Latin 

 work of a similar aim, published by Arthur Brough- 

 ton, M.D., at London in 1782; or the " Plates of 

 the Indigenous Plants of Great Britain," chiefly 

 outlines and many of them diminished, given to the 

 publick, at a very cheap rate, by Mr. John Walcot of 

 Bath in 1778. The last publication was discon- 

 tinued after tab. 168, and the two former have never 

 been very popular. 



A great work, illustrative of British plants, but, 

 as Mr. Dryander has observed, " more splendid than 

 useful," in twelve quarto volumes, with numerous 



VOL. r. b 



