PREFACE. 



No department of nature has higher claims on our attention, than the 

 ▼ejreuble kino^dom. It yields us the every-day necessaries of life. It al- 

 tbrds us the indesjx-nsable artiiK^ for foixl, clothing, shelter and warmth; 

 and without its constant ministrations, with our present constitution, ex- 

 istence would be impossible. But besides the benefits of which all are 

 constant partakers, it lays other claims to our regard. The study and cul- 

 ture of the exquisitely beautiful objects? which it presents, exert the happi- 

 est influence on all our socird and moral leelings. So clearly has this been 

 evinced to obsenation, that it has bwome a trite saying, that to the stran- 

 ger, the flower pots in the cottage window of the poor, or about the dwel- 

 lings of the wealthy, are almost sure indications of purity and social haj>- 

 l^ness within. On no page of creation, can be found more distinctly 

 written, the wisdom, benevolence and love of the Creator, than on that 

 which exhibits the structure and adaptation of organization to circumstan- 

 ces, of the humblest vegetable. The various beautiful provisions made for 

 the protection of plants in winter; the storing up of food which may nour- 

 ish plants or animals; the purification of the air by vegetable respiration, 

 with innumerable other exhibitions of Divine wisdom and l>encvolence. 

 are not only subjects fitted to call forth our admiration as intellectual bt - 

 incTs. but ivust call forth the most dovotetl (Tatitude and love, from cverv 

 heart not paralyzed fti its workings, by unholy and groveling indulgences. 

 The vegetable kingdom is the laboratory in which Nature converts the 

 inorganic elements into products fitted for sustxiining animal existence 

 and it can but be a subject of primo importance to the welfare of man. that 

 he understands the workings of the complicated apparatus she employs 

 that if possible, he may aid her efforts; and not, as is too often the case 

 embarrass her operations, by ignorance, when she is laboring for his good. 

 To do thi 8, he must study her pro<lucts, determine by analysis the peculiar 

 materials she may require fJtr the production of the different kinds, and di- 

 rect his operations accordingly. He must study the aftinitics of the dif- 

 ferent individuals, that he may appropriate to them their proper relations. 

 in his arrangements He nmst study their organization, that he may adopt 

 with certainty such means of improvement as knowledge thus obtained 

 may sugnest. All this demands the attention of him who would reap all 



ithe blessings the existence of these l>eings was intended to confer 

 The means of determining the names of the individual plants of the 

 KBljion in which we live, is certainly a prime step in our advancement tc 

 •rromplishina any of the other objects proposed. The student of South- 

 em Botany, i« met inthevcrv outset, bv a want of such means, adapted to 



