INTRODUCTION 



The object originally contemplated in preparing a new 

 Flora of the British Islands, was of a twofold nature : 

 Istly, to provide the young Student with a description of 



our 



native plants, arranged according to the simplest 

 method; and, 2dly, to afford to the more experienced 



Man 



as 



well as in the closet. In regard to the first object, the 

 experience of nearly an hundred years has proved to every 

 unprejudiced mind that no system can be compared to 

 that of the immortal Swede, for the facility with which 

 it enables any one, hitherto unpractised in Botany, to as- 

 certain the genus of some previously known plant. And 

 as to the second, almost every collector in this country 

 had been so habituated to the Linnaean method by the 

 labours of Sir J. E. Smith, that to have presented any 

 other arrangement would have been of no avail. 



In the first four editions of this Flora, therefore, the 

 Linnzean method was followed ; but in order to accustom 

 the reader, by degrees, to the natural system, an Appendix 

 was given— at first brief, but gradually extended as new 

 editions were called for— in which the Orders of Jussieu 

 were characterized, so far at least as related to British 

 plants. The more easy is the commencement of a study 

 rendered, the more votaries will be drawn to it; and 

 though they should attain to no further knowledge of a 

 Natural Method than has been taught by the imperish- 

 able writings of a Linnaeus and of a Smith, yet let them 

 be assured that in plants, taken individually, and in an 



A 3 



