PREFACE. 



HE titlepage of this Catalogue indicates how much it is in advance of all that have heen 

 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 Linnean 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 Linnean Arrangement 

 from the Jussieuean, and to both Arrangements from the General Index. A star (*) 

 before either the number of a species, or that of a genus, indicates that next in alliance to it 

 there is an additional species or genu?, or several additional species or genera, in the Sup- 

 plement (p. 46*7, to p. 490). A section (§) indicates that the name has been changed, or 

 that the genus or species has undergone some alteration in the Supplement. 



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 duration 

 in the garden (col. 4.), explained in p. vii. viii., 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 

 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 perennial 

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

 duration or eternity, instead of the old sign, % ; an annual remains a circle as before, o 5 be- 

 cause, among other reasons, gardeners sow patches of annual flowers in circles ; and a biennial 

 is a double circle, G), instead of the old sign, J . The bark stove is a parallelogram, 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 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, 23, 23> KE, &c., one column is made to serve the 

 purpose of two. Thus, with these natural signs of habit, which amount to twenty-five, 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- 

 four, 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 Banks/a 

 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 antiquity ai e 

 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 Fyrus* All words, generic 

 or specific, of unknown derivation, or aboriginal names, are wholly in Italic or wholly m 

 Roman, according to the letter in which the preceding or following matter may be printed, as 

 Paederia Lingun Bqj. or Pcsderia Lingun Boj. This mode of indication, which occurred to 

 the Editor in 1826, was first exemplified in the second volume of the Gardeners Magazine, 

 and, with the mode of accentuation adopted in this Catalogue, is 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. 



Short Introductions are given to the Linnean and Jussieuean Systems, illustrated by 



A 2 



