PUEFACE. ' xi 



no work on the Vegetable World that displays more 

 varied or instructive information. With respect to 

 the second qualification already mentioned, it may aU 

 so be maintained, that the philosophical views exhi- 

 bited in the work are no less sound than they are fre- 

 quently ingenious and original ; and that in no one 

 part of the performance is it possible to discover a 

 trace of that visionary mode of considering facts and 

 appearances, which has been unjustly represented as 

 belonging to all German writers. Nor is the merit 

 of the work less distinguished with respect to the 

 powers of arrangement which it displays ; — condensa- 

 tion and perspicuity, indeed, are among its most 

 striking excellencies, — so that it bears, in all respects, 

 evidence of having proceeded from men, who not only 

 knew their subject extensively and well, and who 

 thought justly on all its parts, but of men who were 

 in possession of the best means of conveying their in- 

 formation with effect, or who had made the higher 

 laws of composition their study. 



The Translator cannot feel any hesitation in speak- 

 ing warmly of a work, which appears to him to be 

 marked by such excellencies. He ventures, indeed, 

 to believe, that its essential merits will speedily be re- 

 cognised ; and he has no doubt that its influence will be 

 considerable, both in enlarging the views of those who 

 are prosecuting Botany as a science, and in spreading 

 just notions respecting the structure and distribution 



