ri INTRODUCTION.. 



ly fhouldbe. One drawingofthiskind,painfulIy and attentive^ 

 ly made, has more merit, and promotes true knowledge more: 

 certainly, than a hundred horti fieci which conftantly pro*, 

 duce imaginary monflers, and throw a doubt upon the whole. . 

 The modern and more accurate fyftem of botany has fixed 

 its diftinctions of genus and fpecies upon a variety of fuch 

 fine parts naturally fo fragil, that drying, fpreading, and- 

 prefling with the mod careful hands, mult break away and I 

 deitroy fome of thofe parts. Thefe deficient in one plant, , 

 exifting in another in all other refpects exactly fimilar, are 

 often, I fear, conflrued into varieties, or different fpecies, and i 

 well if the misfortune goes no farther. They are precifely 

 of the fame bad confequence as an inaccurate drawing 9 , 

 where thefe parts are left out through inattention, or de- 

 fign. 



After having bellowed my firft confederation upon thefe 

 that make a principal figure in ancient hiflory, which are, 

 either not at all or imperfectly known now, my next at- 

 tention has been to thofe which have their uies in manu- 

 factures, medicine, or are ufed as food in the countries I am , 

 describing. 



The next I have treated are the plants, or the varieties of: 

 plants, unknown, whether in genus or fpecies. In thefe I 

 have dealt fparingly in proportion to the knowledge I yet 

 have acquired in this fubject, which is every day increafing, _., 

 and appears perfectly attainable. 



The hiftory of the birds and beafts is the fubject whichi 

 sccupies the next place in this Appendix;, and the ' 

 a.. rule 



