PRITZEL'S "INDEX.' 



21 



months or even years of labour, my time would prove to have been 

 misspent and lost. I thereupon abandoned the prospect and turned 

 to other work. 



But the aspect at the present time compared with the past is 

 greatly changed for the better. During the period of dormancy 

 the scope of horticulture has both widened and deepened, and the 

 lapse of time, now more than half a century since the second volume 

 of Pritzel's " Index " was published, makes a new edition impera- 

 tive. Under the auspices of this great and powerful Society the 

 work now happily begun is assured of success, and I can now hope 

 to see and handle the new " Pritzel " in my lifetime. It is a great 

 pleasure to think that a work which attracted me in my early years 

 is now being done, and I am glad in my declining years to be asso- 

 ciated, in however small a degree, with the production of a book 

 which must prove of immense and lasting service, both to the botanist 

 and the horticulturist. 



