VI PREFACE. 



The text has undergone a careful revision, by the Author correcting 

 such errors as a frequent practical use of the work, as well as the sug- 

 gestions of friends, have pointed out. A few alterations have been made 

 in some of the Analytical Keys, in cases where difficulties had been 

 experienced in arriving at the names of anomalous species. In the 

 stations or habitats, those connected with the Irish Flora have been 

 considerably modified, chiefly in consequence of the valuable notes 

 communicated by Mr. Isaac Carroll, of Cork. The Author has also 

 availed himself of important hints received from Professor Oliver and 

 from Mr. E. Skepper, of Bury St. Edmund's, as well as of detached 

 observations on the part of numerous friends and correspondents, or 

 gleaned from published criticisms of the ' Handbook/ 



In the general arrangement of the families and genera, although the 

 progress of the investigations undertaken in conjunction with Dr. 

 Hooker for the * Genera Plantarum ' have suggested several alterations, 

 these have not appeared to be of sufficient importance to disturb the 

 order previously adopted, excepting in the case of the Purslane Family 

 {Portulacece) and theParonychia Family, which have been removed from 

 Calyciflorse, to be placed, the former next to the Pink Family {Caryo- 

 jphyllece), the latter next to the Amaranth Family, among Mono- 

 chlamyds. The Author regrets that it was not till after the publica- 

 tion of the eighth part (pp. 281-320) that a detailed examination of 

 Haloragese for the 'Australian Flora ' had convinced him that recent 

 botanists were correct in removing that group to some distance from 

 the (Enothera Family (Onograriece), under which they are still here 

 included, after the example of the earlier followers of the Jussieuan 

 method. 



The great reduction in the number of supposed species adopted in 

 the * Handbook ' has been severely criticized and strongly condemned 

 by botanists of eminence, chiefly among those who have devoted them- 

 selves to the investigation of the Flora of Europe alone or of its separate 

 States. On the other hand, the Author has more than ever reason to 

 believe that the line he has adopted is in strict conformity with the 



