INTRODUCTION. xv 



care more for the things which words represent than for the 

 words themselves. Much misdirected learning and ingenuity 

 have been expended of late years on the renaming of plants. In 

 one case I have most reluctantly been obliged to suggest a 

 name for a species transferred by Engler to a new genus, for which 

 I have been unable to discover a published name. I have done my 

 utmost to assign the various species to the right genera, but I can 

 hardly hope to have entirely avoided errors. 



The assistance rendered by De Dalla Torre and Harms' " Genera 

 Siphonogamarum ad Systema Englerianum Conscripta " has been 

 invaluable as far as it goes, but that work is only completed as far 

 as G-uttifera3. Beyond that point I have extracted what was 

 wanted from "Die Pflanzenfamilien " itself. Engler's "Syllabus 

 der Pflanzenfamilien" (Second Edition, 1898) is most useful, but 

 does not descend lower in the scale than Sub-tribes, except to 

 make mention of the more important genera and species. 



For the benefit of those to whom Engler's colossal work is not 

 easily accessible, an arrangement of the genera of British plants in 

 accordance with his system is appended. It is based on the Ninth 

 Edition of the London Catalogue, and is simplified by the omission 

 in many cases of intermediate grades, such as Sub-series and Sub- 

 tribes. The standard of the various Divisions can almost always 

 be fixed by paying attention to the terminations. Sub-genera and 

 Sections of Genera are omitted, as they would be practically 

 useless without a list of the species which they include, and a 

 complete list of species would be out of place in a small local 

 Flora. In a few instances there is a discrepancy between the 

 Syllabus and the larger work, e.g., Galamintha and Ehinanthus, 

 which appear as genera in the Syllabus, are merged in Satureia 

 and Pistularia respectively in Die Pflanzenfamilien. In such 

 cases I have adopted in the Flora the name most familiar to 

 British botanists. 



