4 INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATIONS. 



t 



unavoidably caused the insertion of several duplicate Nos. 

 Hence, too, some duplicate Nos. and other correspond- 

 ing changes in the Cyhele Britannica also. 



Another coincidence may be found elsewhere, which it 

 is worth wliile to point out, because geogi'aphical botany 

 has very close dependence on the department of descrip- 

 tive botany. The three successive editions of Mr. C. C. 

 Babington's ' Manual of British Botany ' bear the dates 

 of 1843, 1847, and 1851. The three volumes of Cybele 

 Britannica are dated in 1847, 1849, and 1852, having been 

 written or partially printed in the years preceding their 

 j)ubLication. In each case their publication followed that 

 edition of the Manual which corresj)onds numerically 

 with the volume of the Cybele. 



Thus, the state of our knowledge in the elementary or 

 descriptive department of British botany, at the dates of 

 each volume of this work, may be ascertained fi'om the 

 con-esponding edition of the Manual, and from no other 

 IJublication of the same class. The Manual continues to 

 be decidedly the best descriptive Flora of Britain hitherto 

 IDubHshed ; — a very good model having been copied in its 

 j)lan and general composition, — the best authorities in 

 European botany having been regularly and fully con- 

 sulted, — and each successive edition having been atten- 

 tively revised. Moreover, it is the work of a botanist who 

 is much better acquainted with the plants of the British 

 islands, than was the Author or Editor of any other Flora 

 of Britain without exception. 



No doubt the British Flora of Sir W. J. Hooker was a 

 very good work originally ; and its publication suflSciently 

 opportune and beneficial a score of years ago. But 

 British botany has progressed much during the past 

 twenty years, while the Author of the British Flora was 

 directing his own attention almost exclusively to the 



