EDITORS PREFACE. VU 



and as regarding the detailed account of localities, the manu- 

 script was complete ; but the hiatus of descriptions were very- 

 numerous. In many cases, also, the divisions of families and 

 of the larger genera were indicated, but the characters of these 

 sectional divisions not expressed. The Editors were most 

 unwilling to mix up any original co-authorship with the work 

 of their deceased friend ; and they have therefore filled up all 

 these blanks, to the best of their power, by quotations from 

 other published works which the author himself had been in 

 the habit of consulting. They have not bound themselves, in 

 this, to follow any one author ; but they have in each indi- 

 vidual case selected that published work for quotation, which 

 it appeared, by the context or by the sectional divisions, the 

 author was in each instance most nearly following. AU these 

 quotations are acknowledged by inverted commas in the usual 

 way ; and in those very few instances where the words of others 

 would not suit them, t>r where new plants or localities had 

 been given them, the Editors have indicated the introduction 

 by inclosure within brackets. This plan has of course occa- 

 sioned, in some cases, a little want of uniformity in defini- 

 tions ; yet it is thought that this will not occasion any real 

 inconvenience, and that the plan selected is, under all the 

 circumstances, the best which could be adopted. 



It does not seem necessary to add a list of the works quoted 

 or the abbreviations made use of in citing them ; the former 

 being such as are known, and the latter sufficiently expHcit to 

 indicate the work intended. The Editors feel, however, that 

 one abbreviation requires a word of explanation : owing to 

 their not having been aware, at first, of the work intended, and 

 having themselves uniformly mistaken in the MS. one of the 

 letters used in quoting it, Mr. Drew Snooke's ' Flora Vectiana ' 

 is referred to generally as B. T. W. instead of B. I. W. ; — 

 which must have been intended for the initial letters of the 

 words 'Botany of the Isle of Wight.' The edition of the 'Bri- 

 tish Flora ' always referred to, except otherwise stated, is the 

 sixth edition of that work, by Hooker and Arnott ; and that of 

 Babington's ' Manual,' the second edition; these being respec- 

 tively the last published during Dr. Bromfield's last residence 

 at home. 



While the Editors themselves feel the value of Dr. Brom- 



