VI. PREFACE, 



it ed to a certain number of pages, and the Second Part occupying more 

 of it than we had calculated, we have been compelled to leave out the 

 Parts on Vegetable Products, and Vegetable Chemistry, although written, 

 and prepared for the press. We regret this the more, as we deem Vegeta- 

 ble Chemistry one of the most interesting and important branches of sci- 

 ence. We beheve much more good may be done, by giving the outlines of 

 a science in all its departments, in elementary works, than by treating them 

 almost as independent sciences, and studying them at different times, and 

 in connection with different subjects, as is uniformly the case with Vegeta- 

 ble Chemistry ; this forming a part of a chemical course, which to a cer- 

 tain extent is proper, but never connected with the study of Botany, from 

 which it ought never to be separated. Chemistry should always be consid- 

 ered in connection with this science, as a means by which we extend our 

 botanical investio-ations, rather than a science including one of the most 

 interesting departments of Botanical research. To be good Botanists, we 

 need first to be good Chemists. To determine the name of a plant, al- 

 though an absolutely necessary part to be attained, ought, by no means, to 

 be the ultimate or chief aim of the student. He should only be satisfied 

 when he is enabled to analyze a plant in all its relations; its products, 

 its food, the soil in which it grows, and to examine and determine its 

 constitution. 



Our principal guide in the preparation of the First Part, has been Lind- 

 iey's '• Introduction to Botany."' We have been aided, however, by Gray's 

 '•Elements of Botany," " Dutrochet's Memoirs on Animal and Vegetable 

 Anatomy and Phj-siology ;" Raspail's " Chemie Organique." and "Phy- 

 siologic Vegetale:" Sir H. Da\'y's "Agricultural Chemistry: " Liebig's 

 Organic Chemistry." Also, articles on Botany in the Edinburgh Ency- 

 clopaedia and Library of Useful Knowledge, besides articles and Memoirs 

 in the most distinguished French, English and American Scientific Journals. 

 In determining the plants of the Second Part, we have relied mostly on 

 Elliott's " Sketches of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia;" Nut- 

 tail's Genera of North American Plants;"' Linnaeus' " System of Nature :"' 

 Louden's "Encyclopaedia of Plants;" article " Botany," Edinburgh Ency- 

 clopaedia; De Candolle's "Prodromus," and Torrey and Gray's "Botany."' 

 as far as published. On several Orders and Genera, we have been aided 

 by various monographs, as they have appeared inand journals pamphlets. 

 In the description of Orders, we have been as brief as possible, but aimed 

 not to omit a characteristic, within the observation of the student, necessa- 

 rj'^ to determining the order. Fq^ a text book for classes, it would have 

 been nearly useless to insert characteristics which require the aid of good 

 glasses to determine ; and unless absolutely required, we have generally 

 omitted such. 



The Genera and Species, have been, in a great majority of cases, de- 

 scribed from the plants themselves, and as much as pos.'^ible, in their nat- 

 ural state. Under such circumstances, even in a brief description, we 

 maj identify the plant almost as accurately as in those more extended 



