VI PREFACE. 



It is here necessary to state that my son, the late 

 Alexander Smith, having taken much interest in arrang- 

 ing the first specimens in the Museum, received, in 

 time, the appomtment of curator ; from this office he 

 was in 1858 removed on account of ill health. 



He early entertained the idea of writing a work to 

 be entitled Economic and Commercial Botany ; with 

 that view he commenced taking notes of all matters 

 relating to the products and uses of plants ; and his 

 health having improved, he made frequent visits to the 

 library of the British Museum, which enabled him greatly 

 to increase the number of his notes. At the time of his 

 death in 1865 his arranged notes occupied thirty octavo 

 volumes, besides manuscripts prepared for the press. 



In order that his labours should not be altogether 

 lost, I selected sufficient matter to form a volume of 

 546 pages (published 1871), entitled Domestic Botany, 

 consisting of two parts — the first being an introduction 

 to the study of botany, written in as plain language 

 as the subject permitted, and the second a systematic 

 arrangement of the families of plants, with a brief notice 

 of the character, nature, and number of species of each 

 family, followed by the popular and botanical names of 

 the principal species yielding products useful to man. 

 Learning that the latter part of the book was most 

 appreciated, I was led to undertake a revision of the 

 work; and in order to save an index, to arrange the 

 subjects in alphabetical order, adopting the English and 

 vernacular names by which plants and their products 

 are known in their respective countries. Theie being, 

 however, no written nomenclature of such names, it 

 becomes necessaiy for the correct identification of the 



