XIY PEEFACE. 



indigenous vegetables only, cannot be too strongly reprobated ; 

 since, independently of the necessary increase to the bulk and 

 cost of the book, the species so introduced are, from the effects 

 of culture alone, not legitimate objects of botanical description; 

 their original and specific characters being in a great measure 

 changed and obliterated by the operations of grafting, budding, 

 or cross impregnation, with a view to improve or augment their 

 produce. 



Following the same rule, I have omitted such ligneous spe- 

 cies as, though of native grovifth within the realm, are found 

 upon this island only in a cultivated condition in parks and 

 plantations, contrary to the practice too often pursued of swell- 

 ing local Floras with species thus domesticated, simply because 

 they cannot be called foreign, though virtually so in reference 

 to the limits within which they cease to grow spontaneously. 

 Nothing is more easy than to make a great display of the vege- 

 table riches of a kingdom or province by pressing aliens like 

 these into the list, or by undue multiplication of species from 

 casual varieties or permanent races. Hence originate those 

 bulky tomes of French and German authors, teeming with the 

 laborious^ acquired gifts of Ceres and Pomona, which, as they 

 have nothing to do with the spontaneous outpourings of the lap 

 of Nature, must be deducted, to form a correct estimate of the 

 vegetative force and features of the country and climate, under 

 the only relation in which these can be either interesting or 

 instructive to the botanical investigator. 



These remarks wiU doubtless appear to some persons mis- 

 placed and uncalled for, inasmuch as it may be thought that 

 works of a similar kind in this country are not chargeable with 

 the practice animadverted upon. But if the objects introduced 

 be not exactly the same, the little selection shown in the draw- 

 ing up of too many of our local and provincial lists of plants 

 betrays a latent inclination to extend the catalogue to a greater 

 length than the actual range of many species would warrant. 

 Even in the more carefully expurgated of these productions, 

 how often do we see very exceptionably sounding habitats 

 assigned for certain ligneous species, such as " in plantations," 

 or, for the various willows, " in osier-grounds," — stations which 

 carry condemnation in their very name. If much caution be 

 necessary in admitting the claim of certain herbaceous plants 



