PREFACE 



THIS Catalogue is intended merely as a preliminary one. No list of Natal 

 plants has yet been published in a separate form, and those wishing for 

 information as to our indigenous flora can only obtain it from the pages of the 

 "Flora Capensis" or other scientific works which are not accessible to the general 

 public. The " Flora Capensis," moreover, is still incomplete, the last published 

 volume ending with the Order Campanulacere, and it will be seen, that even within 

 the range of the three volumes published, the present list includes species and 

 genera not to be found in that work. 



It is hoped that by the publication of this Catalogue (which is necessarily very 

 imperfect) information may be elicited ; new species, or species not at present 

 known to be indigenous, may be added, and the habitats of the different plants 

 more fully recorded, so that at no remote period a fuller and more correct list may 

 be compiled, and information added which it has been found impracticable to 

 include in the present one. 



It will be noticed that a large number of plants in this list are without any 

 indication of the locality in which they have been found. The reason for this is 

 that many collectors have been content to give the locality as simply Natal, or to 

 add the name of some river, such as Umzimkulu, Tugela, &c, &c. ; but as these 

 rivers run their course from the Berg to the sea, it is impossible to form any idea 

 of the elevation at which the plants have been collected. The few specimens of 

 Gerrard's collections, which are in the Government Herbarium, and also Rev. J. 

 Buchanan's collections of Gramineje and Cyperaceje are all without any indica- 

 tion of the habitat of the plants. In a future list I hope the habitats may be much 

 more fully recorded. 



Those species whose names are printed in italics are certainly not really 

 indigenous, and it is very probable that many more may be added to the list. 



It must not be supposed that all those plants to which no specific name is 

 attached are necessarily new or undescribed. Some few no doubt are so, while 

 others are, very probably, known species, but in consequence of the specimens not 

 being sufficiently perfect they cannot be certainly identified, while others again 

 are doubtless mere varieties of plants already well known. 



The capital letters following the name of the plant give an indication, though 



