PREFACE. 



The titlepage of this Catalogue indicates how much it is in advance of all that have been 

 hitherto published ; but there are some improvements in it not there stated, and others of 

 which it may be requisite to give some explanation. 



The numeration of the species in the Linnaean Arrangement, and the use of figures 

 instead of letters in designating the varieties, are adopted with a view to facilitate the 

 numbering of plants in gardens, of dried specimens in herbariums, of drawings, or of seeds. 

 For the first purpose we have given an explanation of the Seton mode of cutting tallies 

 (p. xxi.), by far the simplest and best for cutting with a knife on number sticks. The 

 genera are numbered separately for the same purposes, and for more ready reference to the 

 Linnaean Arrangement from the Natural, and to both Arrangements from the General 

 Index. 



After the Natural Order two numbers are placed, as totals of species (e. g. sp. 4 — 10.) ; 

 the first indicates the number of species in the Catalogue, the second the total number 

 hitherto described by botanists. An accurate idea is thus given of what additions are to 

 be expected to the British Hortus, in any genus of plants. 



The signs used for the habits of plants (col. 3.), and those of their habitation and dura- 

 tion in the garden (col. 4.), explained in p. vii., are improvements in botanical description 

 by the Editor, first described in the Encyclopedia of Gardening in 1822, and applied in the 

 Encyclopedia of Plants (1st edit. 1829). The twenty-three varieties of habit are indicated 

 by figures of the plants themselves ; as a tree for a tree, a shrub for a shrub, a climber or a 

 twiner for plants of these descriptions, a grass for a grass, a bulb for a bulb, a plant floating 

 on water for an aquatic, &c, to recollect which requires no exertion of memory. A peren- 

 nial is indicated by a triangle, A, the sign of the Trinity, and therefore connected with 

 perpetual duration or eternity, instead of the old sign, If ; an annual remains a circle as 

 before, O , because, among other reasons, gardeners sow patches of annual flowers in 

 circles ; and a biennial is a double circle, Q>, instead of the old sign, $ . The bark stove 

 is a parallelogram, O, which may be considered as representing the section of a hot-house 

 closed on all sides, to maintain the greatest degree of heat ; the dry stove, three sides of a 

 parallelogram, ZD, to maintain the next degree of heat ; the green-house, two and a half 

 sides of a parallelogram, i |, which figure may be considered as the section of a green- 

 house ; and the frame, two sides of a parallelogram, |, which may be supposed to resemble 



the section of a frame or pit. This explanation will assist the reader in recollecting these 

 signs. By combining the signs of duration with those of habitation, E2, SI, EH, Oi, &c, 

 one column is made to serve the purpose of two. Thus, with these natural signs of habit, 

 which amount to twenty-three, and of duration and habitation, which amount to nineteen, 

 we have extended the power of this department of abridged botanical description from ten, 

 the greatest number of signs, and these entirely arbitrary, that, we believe, has hitherto 

 been used in botanical works, to forty-two, and these all natural or characteristic, the 

 number employed in this Catalogue. 



The systematic names are accented on a simple principle, which is explained in detail 

 in p. viii. The derivations of the genera are given, and the specific systematic names 

 literally translated, any explanatory words accompanying such translation being printed in 

 Italic. Those names, whether of genera or species, which are commemorative, as Banksza 

 in honour of Sir Joseph Banks, are distinguished by having the subjoined letters in Italic 

 where the rest of the word is in Roman, and in Roman where the rest of the word is in 

 Italic, as Bdnksia ; those which have been applied to plants by the classic writers of an- 

 tiquity are distinguished by having the initial letter in Italic, as Pyrus, where the rest of 

 the word is in Roman, and in Roman where the rest of the word is in Italic, as Yyrus. 

 All words, generic or specific, of unknown derivation, or aboriginal names, are wholly in 

 Italic or wholly in Roman, according to the letter in which the preceding or following 

 matter may be printed, as Pasderia Lingun Boj. or Pcederia Lingun Boj. This mode of 

 indication, which occurred to the Editor in 1826, was first exemplified in the second 

 volume of the Gardener's Magazine, and, with the mode of accentuation adopted in this 

 Catalogue, was continued in that magazine, and in the Magazine of Natural History, not 

 only in the scientific names of plants, but in those of animals and minerals, till the com- 

 pletion of those works. 



Short Introductions are given to the Linnaean and Natural Systems, illustrated by 



A 2 



