PREFACE. 



of translations from the Latin and Italian poets. It will 

 surprise no one to he informed that both the foregoing have 

 been ranked as scientific treatises, by the compiler of the 

 Bihliotheca Historico-naturalis ; I consider the blame must be 

 charged against the perpetrators of these misleading titles. 

 Another mistake, far less easily condoned, may be found in 

 the Bookseller for May, 1879, p. 431, where Florilegium amantis, 

 a selection by Mr. Richard Garnett from the poems of Coventry 

 Patmore, is gravely set down as a botanical book ! The same 

 journal has this statement on page 36 of this month's issue 

 (Jan. 1881) : Calpensis {Flora) ; Bemim'scenees of Gibraltar, etc. 

 This is probably a new edition (which I have not seen) of 

 Kelaart's Floi-a calpensis, m.entioned on page 340. Again, a 

 blundering title like that of Keith's, given on page 484, 

 with a note concerning it, may easily be misunderstood, 

 especially if it occur in a language with which the com- 

 piler is imperfectly acquainted. 



I might extend this list to a considerable extent ; but I will 

 only mention one other error I have met with. This announce- 

 ment, "Passagio G., Belle crittogame alle fanerogame," hardly 

 suggests the actual title which is cited on page 108, and 

 should be Massalongo, Graduale passagio delle crittogaine, etc. 

 This is a step beyond the kind of blunder referred to by 

 Mr. "Wheatley {What is an Index? p. 67), as occurring in 

 Carus and Engelmann's Bihliotheca Zoologica ; — Schreiben, 

 Schriften, and the like. 



In taking titles from the various publishers' journals, there 

 must always be some risk towards the end of each year, of 

 giving a date which may differ by an unit from that on the 

 title-page of the book itself; this liability arises from the 

 trade-practice of dating forward ; I have given the titles of 



