Xir PREFACE. 



theories, but that they will be generally recognized as founded on 

 personal observation of living plants, made duriag many years' 

 residence on the Continent as well as in this country, and on re- 

 peated comparison of specimens collected from the most varied and 

 distant points of the geographical areas of the several species. 



An attempt has on the present occasion been made to give pro- 

 minence to a series of English names to the British plants, render- 

 ing them as far as possible consistent with the recognized prin- 

 ciples of systematic nomenclature, so essential for the study of 

 plants. It was at first intended merely to have adopted those which 

 are appended to all the .genera and species in Hooker and Amott's 

 Flora ; but the first attempts to apply them practically gave evi- 

 dence that they had never been framed with a view to being used 

 by botanists or amateurs in the place of the Latin ones. It will be 

 observed that there is among them a continual confusion between 

 popular, trivial, and generic names, between epithets and specific 

 names, between substantives and adjectives ; that on frequent occa- 

 sions one name is appKed to several genera, or several names to one 

 genus ; that the number of words forming the name of a plant varies 

 from one to five, instead of being constantly two ; and that some of 

 the names put forward as English are very local, almost unknown, 

 or obsolete, and no easier to learn than the more useful Latin ones 

 they represent. It became necessary, therefore, thoroughly to re- 

 vise the whole system, and to recast it upon the Linnaean principles, 

 universally adopted for the Latin botanical names. In this work 

 the Author has had the valuable assistance of Professor Henslow, 

 or, rather, is indebted to him for the chief part of it, and the names 

 have been generally settled in consultation with him and with Dr. 

 J. D. Hooker. The full statement of the principles which have 

 induced the rejection of certain names and the substitution of 

 others, and the details of their application to individual cases, would 

 occupy more space than is consistent with the limits of this Preface. 

 They are, however, given at length in a paper prepared by the 

 Author, to be laid before the Linnaean Society on the publication of 

 this Flora. In the same paper are recorded such observations on 

 matters of detail, in the limitation, character, or synonymy of genera 

 and species, as have been suggested in the course of the preparation 

 of this Work, but which would have too much increased its bulk if 

 inserted in its pages, and would moreover have presented but little 

 interest to the mere amateur. 



