PREFACE. 



It is well known and agreed to by Botanifts, that the 

 Mints Hill remain in great confufion and obfcurity, owing chiefly to the 

 fcarcity of good and faithful figures; and it is wonderful, amidft all 

 our modern improvements in Botany, that no new plates of this very 

 ufeful and beautiful tribe have been given, at leaft none that are capital; 

 yet fuch is the intricacy and fportivenefs of this family, that it is impof- 

 fible for a verbal defcription alone to define them without the aid of juft 

 and accurate figures to refer to. Perhaps the reafon why we have fo few 

 of thefe, may be owing to the difficulty, labour, and tedioufnefs, in the 

 execution of them, their flowers being fo numerous, and their component 

 parts fo minute. 



Fuschius's plates, altho' they are in general rude and Gothick, corre- 

 fponding to the times in which he lived, are fome of them very good, par- 

 ticularly his M. Hortenfis prima, our Sativa; and his M. Hortenfis fecunda, 

 our Rotundifolia. His other three are but indifferent, I might fay bad. 



John Bauhine's figures are on too fmall a fcale to convey any proper 

 idea of the plants, excepting only his Mentajlrum gravi odore, which is 

 indeed a mafter-piece of thofe times, and worthy of admiration ; and 

 perhaps not to be excelled by artifts of the prefent day. 



a Mathiolus 



