PREFACE. XVU 



eptemeral class, school-books. Elementary works are not as a 

 rule to be found in the botanical libraries which usually are 

 appendages to herbaria ; they would be out of place there, and 

 would uselessly take up valuable space. We can only by 

 chance find them in various hands, and our information as to 

 new editions, and the like, must be obtained from the pub- 

 lishers' lists or contemporaneous criticism. The British 

 Museum cannot demand a copy of a mere reprint, hence I have 

 often had to search in other quarters for such information as I 

 could not gain there. I have rejected unhesitatingly every title 

 which I believed to be erroneous or defective ; about two 

 hundred titles are still in my hands which could not be used on 

 account of imperfections. Take, for instance, " W. Gardiner's 

 Catalogue of British Mosses, Ed. 3. price 2d." ; this was 

 advertised by Longmans, but I can learn nothing more about 

 it; it was probably a broadside, and published between 1840 

 and 1850, but the absence of certain information compels me to 

 omit it, with many similar cases. 



In admitting titles at secondhand, even with every pre- 

 caution adopted to guard against copying mistakes, there is 

 increased risk of errors creeping in. Some authors contrive 

 titles seemingly of set purpose to entrap the unwary ; a fine 

 example of this pious fraud is in the case of Bishop 

 Alex. Ewing's Feamainn Earraghaidhiell ; Argyllshire Seaweed. 

 Glasgow, 1872. 8°. To enhance the delusion the coloured 

 wrapper is ornamented with some of the common marine algae, 

 but the inside of the volume consists solely of pastoral ad- 

 dresses. As another example take this, Flowers from the South, 

 from the Hortus Siccus of an old Collector. By W. Eyett, F.R.S , 

 instead of a popular work on the Mediterranean flora, by a 

 scientific man, as might be looked for, this is a quarto volume 



