PREFACE. VII 



and improving it. Should close critics hunt out 

 imperfections or omissions, the writer must be con- 

 tent to ask whether some counterbalance may not 

 also be found. Very few years ago, he would have 

 gladly welcomed this little book, from any other 

 source, as a foundation for his own studies and in- 

 vestigations ; nor is he without hope, that the junior 

 botanists of Britain will find a perusal of it add to the 

 extent, and also to the exactness, of their ideas on 

 the department treated of. Such additions may not, 

 indeed, be of much worth or direct utility; but, to 

 borrow the words of a well-known writer and cele- 

 brated man, " there is something positively agreeable 

 to all men, to all at least whose nature is not most 

 grovelling and base, in gaining knowledge for its 

 own sake." 



To the friends who have assisted him by their sug- 

 gestions, notes, specimens, or other means, the author 

 begs to return his sincere thanks. Most of such 

 communications are necessarily merged in a general 

 sketch, like the present ; but they will be seen, either 

 in the New Botanist's Guide, or in the intended work 

 on the distribution of species, both before mentioned. 

 There are few or none of the botanists of Britain, 

 however young in the study, who have not the oppor- 

 tunity of affording some assistance to one investigating 

 the distribution of plants, and desirous of determining 

 the laws which regulate it; indeed it is to the young 

 that he chiefly Jooks for co-operation. Many have 

 shown themselves willing as well as able to do this, 



