10 MONOCOTYLEDONEÆ. 
though much of it was fragmentary; and I the more regret that I 
have not found all his species inasmuch as, in the case of one des- 
cribed on first-class material viz. Cyrtandra Horsfieldii, the authentic 
specimen is a well known Campanulaceous plant, viz. Pentaphragma 
begoniæfolium, Wall. 
I have been unable to verify any of the species of Asa Gray by 
the type specimens. D' Gray informs me that his Polynesian Cyr- 
tandræ were founded on sleuder collections of which no duplicates 
came to Europe; and he said that, after the lapse of time that has 
intervened, he was quite unable to give me any assistance in affixing 
his own names to the Kew material. There have been received how- 
ever in Europe, and especially at Kew, collections named by Ame- 
rican botanists of eminence, which collections include most of the 
species of Asa Gray; and in these the plants agree well with Asa 
Gray’s descriptions; so that there only remain two species of Asa 
Gray with which I have been able to do nothing but copy his des- 
cription. 
$ 6. FORM OF THE PRESENT MONOGRAPH. 
The Old-World Cyrtandreæ having increased from 132 to 460 
species since DC. Prodr. 9 was published, my first aim has been to 
draw usefully together into one place the whole of the literature, and 
to represent the material as completely as possible even where the 
species may not be fully represented in the European Herbaria. 
Looking to the future large extension to be anticipated for this tribe, 
I have thought it most convenient to disturb, as little as possible, the 
existing limits of genera and species. I have accepted, almost in 
their entirety, the genera of Benth. and Hook. f.; I have also accep- 
ted, very largely, the species of Blume, R. Br., etc.; in many cases, 
there is now no more material to form a judgment upon than there 
was in their day; and with only two type-specimens, differing 
somewhat in un-essential characters, before a herbarium botanist, 
it is a purely conventional matter whether they are esteemed spe- 
