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INTRODUCTION 



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. ,When a fifth edition was required, so great was tne 

 demand in this country for something more than the 

 Linn^an method, that it was considered the time had 

 arrived for the experiment being fully made of using the 

 Jussieuan or Natural System for the general arrange- 

 ment ; while the Linnaean was introduced into the preface 

 as an index to the other, for those who still cling to it, as 

 well as for beginners. Accordingly the plan was fol- 

 lowed, so advantageously employed by Beck in his Flora 

 of the Middle States of North America, Mackay in his 

 Flora Hibernica, and Koch in his Flora Germanica, of 

 giving a synoptical Linnsean Table of the Classes, Orders, 

 and Genera, referring to the place in the main body of 

 the work where the species is described and arranged 

 according to the natural method. 



That this experiment was not unsatisfactory is de- 

 monstrated by the fact, that a sixth edition was called 

 for in 1850, and after an interval of scarcely five years 

 a new one has been again demanded. The Linnsean 

 method is not, therefore, now reverted to. In the present 

 edition, the reduced size of the page and of the type 

 adopted in the last has been retained : by this means, not 

 only are many useful observations retained, but synop- 

 tical tables are given of all the orders under each great 

 division, and also similar tables of the genera under each 

 order, the detailed characters of the orders being placed 

 as formerly at the head of the genera, and those of the 

 genus at the head of the species. 



By those who desire fuller information respecting the 

 natural affinities of Plants, especially as concerns uni- 

 versal Botany, the following works may be studied with 



Dr. Lindley's Introduction to Botany, and 



advantage : 



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W. J. Hooker) 



Manual of 



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