PREFACE. 



Vli 



the great collection of vegetable products contained in the 

 Museum at Kew,* I have, from these and other sources, 

 obtained a considerable knowledge of the subject generally 

 known as Economic Botany. 



The merit of being the first to collate and systematically 

 arrange this branch of the science is due to the late Dr. 

 Lindley, who, in his great work, " The Vegetable Kingdom," 

 has given a brief account of the principal products and uses 

 of plants under their respective families. This leads me to 

 notice the labours on the same subject of my late son, Alex- 

 ander Smith, who became connected with the Museum on its 

 first establishment, and ultimately curator. He early con- 

 ceived the idea of writing a general work on Economic and 

 Commercial Botany, and for that purpose had, at the time of 

 his death in 1865, made an extensive collection of notes, 

 manuscripts for two volumes being then nearly ready for the 

 press. I have been unable to carry out his intentions further 

 than to select matter for the present volume. It is, however, 

 proper to state that, in order to reduce it to a moderate size, 

 it was found necessary to condense as much as possible. In 

 the economic part this has been effected by omitting the 

 notice of species and products of local interest only in foreign 

 countries. This reduction must be accepted as an apology 

 for many brief notices and occasionally abrupt paragraphs ; 

 to which must be added, that on account of my recent loss of 

 sight, the whole has been written and arranged from my 

 dictation. Although thus curtailed, I trust, nevertheless, 

 that it will be found to contain sufficient information to make 

 it interesting and instructive to those for whom it is written. 

 It is, however, much to be desired that a general and com- 



* See page 11. 



