DEDICATION. 



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MADAM ! 



In Eastern Language high and mighty Potentates are 

 compared to lofty Trees which afford Food and Shade to the sun-burnt 

 Traveller. In the more temperate Regions of the Earth, Kings and 

 Princes are contemplated as the Sun, which sheds his benign Radiance 

 every where, inspiring each Object with new Life and Refreshment : 

 by the Concurrence, therefore, of all Nations, the great Attribute of 

 Sovereignty is Protection-, from conferring of which by Your Most 

 Gracious Majesty, the Science of Botany in Great Britain chiefly 

 owes its present Advancement ; and this NEW ILLUSTRATION of 

 the SEXUAL SYSTEM of the great LINNAEUS, its Foundation; 

 which in Point of Magnificence is intended to exceed all other Works 

 of a similar Nature on the Continent, and to be not only a National 

 Honour, but an Eternal Memorial of that Patronage which is granted 

 to Botany by Your Most Gracious Majesty. From the unbounded 

 Protection, so liberally bestowed by an august King, and the best of 

 Queens, all the ufeful and ornamental Sciences, with the pleasing Arts 

 of Painting, and Engraving, have reached their pre-eminence ; nor have 

 the English Nation less reason now to be proud also of their superiority 

 in Type and Paper. 



Whilst the honourable Exertions of a great Nation have been 

 lately concentrated to embellish and illustrate the Fancy of Poets, or 

 Sacred and Historic Truth ; the Science of Botany, advanced as it is 

 by Linnaeus, and subsequent authors, and by the glowing imaginations 



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