Vlll PREFACE. 



250 drawings, illustrating above 200 species, the drawings 

 with very few exceptions being made from living cultivated 

 plants, and accompanied by dissections and notes, which 

 latter, however, did not reach Kew till late in 1888, after 

 this Handbook was all written out. 



4. The BROMELiACEiB of the Berlin Herbarium, which, 

 through the kind intervention of Dr. Urban, I had on loan 

 for several weeks for leisurely study at Kew last year. 



5. The Paris Herbarium, which I went through rapidly 

 during a holiday visit to Paris in the autumn of 1888. 



The present Handbook contains descriptions, more or less 

 complete, of above 800 species, which is more than double 

 Mr. Bentham's estimate of the number of species known in 

 1883. No doubt this is far short of the number that will 

 ultimately be found. During the last year M. Andre has 

 added 60 new species from his own gatherings in New 

 Granada and Ecuador ; and Dr. Wittmack about twenty from 

 the collections of Consul Lehmann. 



Handbooks of this kind only return to the author a small 

 proportion of the expense of printing them; and I have 

 further to thank the Bentham Trustees for a grant towards 

 the expense of this one ; and I also feel much indebted to 

 Dr. Trimen and Mr. James Britten for giving me the 

 opportunity of publishing in the * Journal of Botany ' the 

 papers to which I have already referred. 



J. G. BAKEE. 



Kew Herbarium, 



August 17th, 1889. 



