PKEFACE. 



Many causes have contributed to the delay which has taken place in the 

 publication of the Diaries of David Douglas's journeys on behalf of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society : — 



1. The handwriting is nowhere easy to read, and in places is most 

 diflicult, occasionally almost if not quite impossible. 



2. In the course of nearly one hundred years the ink has faded and 

 become in places very hard to decipher. 



3. After the Diary of his journey in North Western America had been 

 prepared for the press and set up in type, a second manuscript was, dis- 

 covered which was at first sight taken to be a duplicate, but which on closer 

 examination was found to contain a great deal of additional information. 

 It had therefore to be compared word for word with the Diary and the 

 additions inserted in their proper places. 



4. All the botanical names mentioned have been very carefully looked 

 up by Mr. H. R. Hutchinson and the name given to the plant in Index 

 Kewensis or by other later authority is quoted at the bottom of the page 

 with a reference to the author responsible for it. 



5. Last, but by no means least, the work was entrusted to the Secretary 

 of the Society and to Mr. Hutchinson, the Librarian, each of whom had 

 already more work in hand than he could conveniently compass, and only 

 occasional spare time could be given to a work which had already waited 

 nearly one hundred years for pubhcation before it was committed to their 

 charge. 



I desire to express my very great indebtedness to Mr. Hutchinson for 

 the extraordinary carefulness with which he has assisted me both in the 

 deciphering of the difficult writing and also in the identification of the 

 plants mentioned, which latter work adds enormously to the value of the 

 publication and to the ease with which it may be consulted by modem 

 Botanists and Horticultiirists. 



W. WiLKS, Sec. R.H.S. 

 West/minster, August 18, 1914. 



