PEEFACE. IX 



collection proved very interesting, and lately Mr. Hjalmarsson has sent some 

 new materials from the Turk Islands. The Caribbean Archipelago is sepre- 

 sented in the Kew Herbarium by several minor collections, but especially 

 by the extensive communications of Dr. Imray, of Dominica, and by the en- 

 tire collection of Eev. Mr. GuUding, of St. Vincent. The principal Trinidad 

 Herbaria to which I had access, were those of Sieber, Lockhart, De Schach, 

 Lane, Purdie, and Crueger. 



On the geogi'aphical range of the West Indian plants (including Cuba), 

 I am preparing a special paper, but the materials for such an inquiry have 

 been added in brackets at the end of the habitat of every species, as far as it 

 is known to proceed beyond the limits of the British islands. These facts 

 were chiefly collected by careful comparison of specimens from other localities, 

 whilst studying the West Indian plants in the Kew Herbarium (the largest 

 stock of phyto-geographical materials in the world), and as often as I could 

 verify the identity of a species from different countries, I have added the 

 usual sign (!). 



As for the classification of species into genera, and of genera into Natural 

 Orders, I have followed generally received principles. But the series or ar- 

 rangement of Orders adopted in this volume may be censured with apparent 

 justice, as not being in conformity with the other colonial Floras since pub- 

 lished. I must, however, remark that the publication of the West Indian 

 Plora began before any other (18B9), and that at that time, as is known from 

 the systems of De CandoUe, EndUcher, and Lindley, no one series of Orders 

 was universally adopted. It must further be taken into account that the 

 authors of Floras, though mostly following the CandoUean series, habitually 

 admit certain deviations from it according to natural affinity, as for instance. 

 Dr. Asa Gray has in his North American, and Mr. Bentham in his ' British 

 Flora,' and that my own series of Dicotyledonous Orders is nearly in con- 

 formity with De CandoUe's 'Prodromus,' except in giving up the Apetalous 

 division, and in arranging the Apetalous plants (as has been considered ad- 

 visable by many authors before me), next to those Orders which I considered 

 more or less aUied. This is not a convenient place to discuss this principle, 

 and as no reader can get a sufficient knowledge of the natural classification 

 of plants without studying general works on botany, I abstain from dwelling 

 here any longer on such a disputable point as the merits of one or the other 

 series of Natural Orders ; referring those who desire information about my 

 arrangement to a paper on the subject (' Grundriss der Systematischen Bo- 

 tanik,' 1854). But to meet the objection of incongruity in this respect be- 

 tween the different colonial Floras, I prefix a table of the Orders, arranged 

 more in conformity with the CandoUean series of Dicotyledones. 



Finally, I take this opportunity of expressing my sincere obligations to all 

 those who have favoured and patronized the edition of this Flora, and in par- 

 ticular to Sir W. Hooker, who has been the real founder and supporter of the 

 work,_and to Dr. J. D. Hooker, without whose constant assistance in over- 

 looking the press and advising me on certain scientific and editorial subjects, 

 it could oever have been completed. 



A. H. E. Gkisebach. 



GSttingen, 26th, June, 1864. 



